When technology reporter Alex Heath has a scoop, he sits down at his computer and speaks into a microphone. He’s not talking to a human colleague—Heath went independent on Substack last year—he’s talking to Claude. Using the AI-powered voice-to-text service Wispr Flow, Heath transmits his ideas to an AI agent, then lets it write his first draft.
Heath sat down with me last week to showcase how he’s integrated Anthropic’s Claude Cowork into his journalistic process. The AI tool is connected to his Gmail, Google Calendar, Granola AI transcription service, and Notion notes. He’s also built a detailed skill—a custom set of instructions—to help Claude write in his style, including the “10 commandments” of writing like Alex Heath. The skill includes previous articles he’s written, instructions on how he likes his newsletters to be structured, and notes on his voice and writing style.
Claude Cowork then automates the drafting process that used to take place in Heath’s head. After the agent finishes its first draft, Heath goes back and forth with it for up to 30 minutes, suggesting revisions. It’s quite an involved process, and he still writes some parts of the story himself. But Heath says this workflow saves him hours every week, and he now spends 30 to 40 percent less time writing.
“I’ve always hated the zero-to-one process of writing a story … Now, it’s actually kind of fun,” he says. “Going out on my own, I realized I need AI to help with the volume.”
Heath is part of a growing contingent of tech reporters using AI to help write and edit their stories. The AI workflow is especially enticing for reporters who have gone independent, losing valuable resources like editors and fact-checkers that typically come with a traditional newsroom. Rather than just prompting ChatGPT to write stories, independent journalists say they are re-creating these resources with AI.
Their usage raises broader questions about the value of human journalists altogether. If people are using AI to write, edit, and fact-check their stories—what do humans bring to the table? A recent study from Google DeepMind researchers suggests that using AI in a lazy way can make your writing more homogeneous. It’s less creative, it has less voice, and it takes on a more neutral stance. To use AI well, journalists I spoke to say they need to understand why people are paying for their work in the first place. (WIRED’s policy prohibits the use of AI in writing or editing).
While some writers have built a career on their analysis and prose, Heath sees his value as his ability to get scoops. Claude makes it easier for him to spend more time chatting with sources and getting information out to his subscribers.
Several longtime journalists remarked to me that Heath’s workflow feels like a modern version of a long-standing institution: the rewrite desk. In the days before laptops and smartphones, reporters in the field would call in stories to a newsroom, where writers behind a desk would quickly weave those reported details into articles they could print for the next day’s paper. This allowed some reporters to spend their days covering events and talking to sources. In a way, Claude is now Heath’s rewrite desk.
“I feel like I’m cheating in a way that feels amazing,” says Heath. “I never did this because I liked being a writer. I like reporting, learning new things, having an edge, and telling people things that will make them feel smart six months from now.”
Jasmine Sun, who previously worked as a product manager at Substack, recently launched her own newsletter covering AI and Silicon Valley culture. Last week, she published an article in The Atlantic about how post-training makes AI models bad at writing by essentially beating out their creativity. Because of that, Sun never uses AI to write, but she has found promise using Claude as an editor.