AI articles stop: Brown Brothers Media halts publishing after investigation

Two weeks after the investigation, the network's sites had virtually disappeared from Google News and search, according to Futurism's observations. VegOut also deleted all content published since May 2026.

An article in minutes. In 2024, Brown Brothers Media integrated an article generator into WordPress. According to a former writer quoted in Futurism's Sep 17 investigation, an employee would choose a topic and tone, and AI would produce a complete article directly in the editor in a couple of minutes. An internal company spreadsheet recorded a drop in active writers from more than 60 in December 2023 to 12 in December 2024, with all remaining writers using AI.

The network drew tens of millions of visits each month. The company claimed more than 50 million monthly page views in 2025. Similarweb estimated an average of 64.7 million visits per month for the same year, according to Futurism's investigation.

Fictitious authors. Justin Brown admitted to Futurism that until May 2026, the network had published content under the names of people who did not exist and attributed fabricated qualifications to them. The publication identified more than 50 such personas.

VegOut founder Maggie Ortlieb sold the magazine in summer 2025 after roughly 10 years of work. In May 2026, she reported that the new owners had turned it into a site publishing AI-generated articles. By Sep 30, the magazine had stopped publishing new content.

MakeTechEasier and Ideapod remained in search results as of Sep 30, according to Futurism's observations.