Local journalism in the US has spent the better part of two decades on life support.

First came widespread digitization, which guttered subscriptions and left newspapers and magazines in shambles. Then private equity swooped in, snapping up publications like candy and turning them into digital ad farms run by skeleton crews.

Add to this a steady erosion of trust in journalism and a drop-off in literacy overall, and the industry looks to be in worse than perhaps ever before. Yet, as the saying goes, things can always get worse — and one media company seems determined to drive the final nail into local news’ coffin.

That company is Axios, a for-profit media corporation majority-owned by communications giant Cox Enterprises. Founded in 2016, Axios rose to prominence by offering dispatches in the form of short, clinical bullet-point lists instead of traditional narrative stories.

Detractors who blasted the brand for its cynical approach to journalism probably had no idea how bad things would get. Now, the company’s founders seem hell bent on automating their already pared-down editorial process in an all-out embrace of AI — and using the template to remake local journalism.

Speaking to the Columbia Journalism Review, the publication’s co-founder Jim VandeHei described himself as an “AI lab rat” after Axios inked a three-year agreement for OpenAI to underwrite 13 local newsletters that will get free access to its content-generating tools. In exchange, OpenAI will get open access to all Axios content to train ChatGPT.

Asked about the perception of his embrace of AI, VandeHei said “we try not to get distracted by what other people in the quote-unquote media think.”

“I’m not delusional,” he continued, “I just don’t have a whole lot of time for people who are AI deniers. Like, good luck.”

As journalistic standards go, the move is dubious. Axios routinely covers developments in the tech industry in general, and OpenAI in particular — meaning there’s a major conflict of interest undergirding the pair’s relationship.

VandeHei, in turn, has been pretty explicit about what that means for his writers: embrace AI, or good luck finding another job in journalism.

“We were early to basically telling our staff that ‘you don’t have a choice,'” the Axios co-founder said during a panel hosted by OpenAI. “If you’re scared, if you don’t like it, we don’t care — you have to embrace it.”

More on AI and media: Remember the Publisher That Put Fake Writers in Sports Illustrated? It Just Rebranded as an AI Company