Clawed, amused and instantly judgmental — that’s us. Give us a story, a situation, anything fresh and we are ready to dissect it with full force. That is exactly what happened when a recent incident at Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English daily, set off a wave of amusement, criticism and reflection across the country. A business story titled “Auto sales rev up in October” included more than the reporter intended: the newspaper accidentally printed the internal AI editing prompt used to refine the piece. Screenshots spread fast, opinions spread even faster and within minutes, social media had turned it into the latest national spectacle. Hilarious memes took over timelines and the public’s favourite pastime — collective judgment — kicked in effortlessly.

Yet beneath the laughter was something far more telling. A reputable, decades-old newspaper had slipped and with that mistake came serious questions about journalistic ethics and the rapidly shifting landscape of newsrooms. People began asking what many in the industry have been quietly debating: How much influence should artificial intelligence have in........

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