You have probably seen one by now. Maybe it was an advertisement featuring a smiling family with a few too many fingers. Maybe it showed a building with doors that led nowhere. Maybe the words looked almost like English, but not quite. Or maybe everything appeared normal at first glance, yet something about the image still felt off.
Generative artificial intelligence is making it easier than ever to create images in seconds. It is also making it harder for readers to know what is real.
That is why, beginning Aug. 1, Cimarron Valley Communications will no longer accept advertisements or primary advertising artwork created using generative AI.
We recently shared this policy with our advertisers, but we also want to explain it to you, our readers, because this decision is being made with you in mind.
When you open the Yale News, we want you to see the real people, businesses, organizations and events that make up our communities. We want the restaurant in an advertisement to show its actual food. We want a local store to show its real products. We want an event promotion to give you an honest idea of what you can expect when you arrive.
We do not want to show you an imaginary version of those things simply because a computer could create it quickly.
This is not about being afraid of new technology. AI is a tool, and it can be useful in the right setting. But when it comes to advertising, it can create a trust problem for both the business and the newspaper carrying the ad.
An advertisement is often your first introduction to a business or event. If that advertisement includes distorted hands, nonsense lettering, fake people or products that do not actually exist, what impression does that leave?
You may wonder whether the business noticed the mistakes. You may wonder whether the event itself is legitimate. You may even wonder why you should spend your money with an advertiser that did not use a real photograph of what it is offering.
We once saw a Facebook user respond to an AI-generated event advertisement by asking, “If you’re too lazy to make the ad, why should I care about your event?”
It was a harsh comment, but it stuck with us because it showed how quickly an AI-generated image can hurt the very business or event it was supposed to promote. The person who made the ad may not have been lazy at all. They may have been trying to save money or simply did not know what else to use. The reader, however, did not know any of that. The reader only saw the finished product.
Research shows that reaction is not unusual. A 2026 report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau found a large gap between what advertisers believe consumers think about AI ads and what consumers actually think. While 82 percent of advertising executives believed younger consumers felt positively about AI-generated advertising, only 45 percent of the consumers surveyed said they did. Among Generation Z respondents, 39 percent reported negative feelings about AI ads.
Another survey found that just 7 percent of consumers said visibly AI-generated marketing made them trust a brand more. Thirty-one percent said it made them trust the brand less.
We do not want our advertisers paying for something that could make you trust them less.
We also do not want artificial images to make you question the credibility of the newspaper itself.
Advertising and news are separate, but they appear together on our pages. When you pick up one of our newspapers, our name is on the entire product. If we fill those pages with fictional people, imaginary buildings and scenes that never happened, it becomes harder to maintain a clear line between what is real and what was manufactured by a computer.
That line matters to us. The Reuters Institute found that readers are much more comfortable with newsrooms using AI for behind-the-scenes tasks, such as correcting spelling, than they are with creating realistic images when no photograph exists. Only 26 percent of those surveyed were comfortable with that kind of artificial news image.
When you see a photograph in our newspaper, we want you to trust that it shows something real. When you see a business advertised on our pages, we want you to feel confident that the ad represents the real people and products behind it.
Our new policy still allows original photography, advertiser-owned logos, properly licensed stock images and traditionally created graphics. Advertisers who need help will not be left on their own. Our award-winning graphic designers can create professional ads using their photographs, logos and information.
In other words, we are not telling local businesses, “Good luck. Figure it out.”
We are telling them, “Let us help you show our readers who you really are.”
Now we would like to hear from you. Can you usually recognize an AI-generated advertisement? Does seeing one affect how you feel about the business or event behind it? Do you believe newspapers should accept AI-generated advertising, reject it or clearly label it?
Send us your thoughts. This is new territory for all of us, and your trust is the reason we are drawing this line.
Be kind to your neighbors, Be kind to your pets, And thank you for trusting us to keep your local newspaper local and real.