First-year AAU business student Bogdan Trukhachov launched the self-described news media company, Prague Pulse, on Instagram in Fall 2025, quickly gaining an online presence with over 2,000 followers, many of whom are fellow students.
The blue and white post design with an attention grabbing image front and center has likely become a staple of many Instagram feeds in the AAU and even expat community. Trukhachov works alongside a team of anywhere from four to five members consistently, and is able to ensure there are multiple posts a day to keep followers engaged, covering a wide array of current events. Trukhachov explains that features such as a list-style summary format in the post captions and lack of author bylines is a product of the “occasional” use of AI tools such as ChatGPT in constructing Prague Pulse posts.
The Inner-Workings of Prague Pulse
While Trukhachov asserts that the captions are human written more often than not, he is honest about Prague Pulse’s use of ChatGPT, though he adds, not without review before publishing.
“When you use ChatGPT you need to check everything,” Trukhachov says. “When we use [it] we recheck a few times, because I hate when work is done badly.”
Trukhachov attributes the use of AI to a lack of time and resources for himself and the other students running Prague Pulse. Trukhachov, who already works two jobs, sees Prague Pulse as a side endeavor and believes AI is necessary when a post needs to be published quickly.
The current process through which Prague Pulse obtains their sources for publishing headlines is a combination of information through a Telegram channel and connections with friends in unspecified Czech news companies or other jobs that provide them with newsworthy information. In these instances, Trukhachov says ChatGPT is used to streamline the process of converting information into a concise summary for Instagram.
“We are not copying the whole structure, we could of course copy from the Russian Telegram and just translate it, but no,” Trukhachov said. “90% of the time we’re creating the [content] on our own. If the article is like 20 pages we of course ask ChatGPT to summarize because the post must be done today, and we don’t have time to write.”
As Trukhachov points out, Prague Pulse is hardly unique in this practice, everyday usage of AI platforms such as ChatGPT is increasingly becoming the norm.
A 2025 study by the Reuters Institute found that from 2024 to 2025, “The proportion who say they have ever used a standalone generative AI system such as ChatGPT jumped from 40% to 61%, and weekly usage nearly doubled from 18% to 34%.”
When it comes to public awareness surrounding the use of AI in journalism, the same study reports that, “A significant ‘comfort gap’ exists between AI- and human-led news production, with only 12% of respondents comfortable with fully AI-generated news compared to 62% for entirely human-made content, although acceptance increases with human oversight and when humans lead with AI assistance.”
The report also states that an increasing number of people believe that AI is used in newsrooms. While an exact number is difficult to quantify, a recent study by Graphite found that just over half of all articles on the web are generated by artificial intelligence.
So, when it comes to the use of generative AI in news content, the question of transparency is boiled down to informing the consumer about the use of such tools.
“If they ask, I will tell the truth, as I’m telling you now,” Trukhachov said. “Do I need to promote myself as a company that is using ChatGPT? It could be very bad, because if I share it once, they will try to investigate [how] each post was written…I can guarantee that the rest of my posts will be seen from that perspective.”
While several major media companies such as Bloomberg and the Associated Press have adopted varying uses of AI in their work as of late, these companies provide transparency as to the frequency and purposes of AI usage in their reporting.
Transparency, Plagiarism, and AI
Another major ethical concern raised in the face of generative AI usage in journalism is the idea that these platforms are merely plagiarizing and summarizing the field work of professional journalists that used their hard work and resources to report first hand information.
“We respect everybody’s work, 100%. If we use somebody’s interview and summarize it we will of course mention it was done by those guys, so we are not technically copying it,” Trukhachov said. “If someone has a problem we will of course do our best to pay them, delete the post, mention them.”
This claim comes despite only one of Prague Pulse’s over 400 posts, as of the publication of this article, having an explicit citation or credit given to a primary news source in the post’s caption. A Nov. 10 post about the return of wolves to the Czech Republic is a stark example of a story lacking citations. The top result of a Google search of the post’s headline “Wolves Make A Comeback In Czechia” is nearly point by point identical to a Prague Morning article that even shares the same cover image.
The non-profit organization Copyright Alliance states, “A work is automatically protected from the moment of its creation, so long as three basic requirements are met: Originality: A work must merely be independently created, i.e., it cannot be copied from another work…A Work of Authorship: A work must be a product of creative expression that falls under one of the categories of copyrightable subject matter. Fixed: Copyright protection automatically attaches to an eligible work the moment the work is fixed in a tangible medium of expression. The laws regarding copyright in journalism and news reporting are no different.”
Violation of these protections is considered copyright infringement, and in journalism specifically, plagiarism.
“I understand from the perspective of journalism, that using ChatGPT is taking jobs, but will you blame the guy who creates a website using ChatGPT if the result is fabulous?” Trukhachov said. “Who will care the way you do your job– if you have a job you need to do it [well].”
An Emotional News Model
It cannot be denied that the business model of Prague Pulse has yielded much success in terms of sheer followers and account engagement. The frequent posts, emphasis on photos and often sensational headlines has led to a steady uptick of engagement from its continually growing audience.
“We’re living in a world where being fast is more important than the quality of the news,” Trukhachov said. “We’re trying to provide the best emotional news possible, not just a summary of the info.…We could do just one post per day, but I don’t want it to be a situation where people say ‘I saw it in Prague Morning or Prague Daily.’ I like the reaction.”
Recent Prague Pulse headlines fit the mold of this “emotional news,” with examples such as “Trans Father Opens Fire,” in regards to a Rhode Island shooting and “Russian Drones Hit Czech Squares,” in describing replicas used in a demonstration. The buzzwords and misleading information used in these headlines are indeed effective in manufacturing engagement.
“We don’t want to be the guys who are using AI or who are unethical, we try to be as ethical as possible with our resources,” Trukhachov said. “Do we want to make it the best quality? Yeah. The fact that we are informing with updates and checking for updates, we’re trying to do the best from our sources.”
Trukhachov is not shy about the ambition of the news platform. He describes Prague Pulse as “just one small brick,” in what he hopes will eventually become something much larger. If successful, Trukhachov hopes he can transition the platform into traditional journalism practices.
“I have a vision of 24/7 news,” Trukhachov said. “Right now we don’t have the qualified people or equipment for traditional interviews and videos.”
If Prague Pulse ever became a large-scale news company, in line with Trukhachov’s vision of building a website which provides global news, not just Czech, he asserts that the need for AI would be lessened with the increased resources such as increased staff and finances.
“I would love traditional journalism because I love the whole idea of it.” Trukhachov said. “I would love to hire 20 people who would work to continue traditional journalism, but I don’t have enough money or people who would do it. ChatGPT is reality, we want to avoid it but we cannot deny it.”
The Future of Traditional Journalism and AI
Dr. Courtney C. Radsch, expert on global technology, misinformation and democracy, writes for The Brookings Institution, “Unlike journalists, AI can not go into the courtroom or interview a defendant behind bars, meet with the grieving parents of the latest school shooting victim, cultivate the trust of a whistleblower, or brave the frontlines of the latest war. Furthermore, without access to human-created, high-quality content that is a relatively accurate portrayal of reality—and that journalism provides—the foundational models that fuel machine learning and generative AI applications of all types will malfunction, degrade, and potentially even collapse.”
Prague is no stranger to the democratic value of a strong and independent press after living through the strict censorship of Communist Party rule. Presently, the city is home to organizations such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Prague which operate as pillars of traditional journalism and free press. Yet Trukhachov’s stance still rings true; AI cannot be ignored when looking to the future of media and journalism. But must it come at the cost of original reporting and free press in a world where democracy is increasingly threatened?
