A debate is intensifying within German-language media about whether artificial intelligence will effectively render traditional journalism obsolete, with commentators arguing the profession's structural weaknesses leave it poorly placed to compete. Writing in the taz (a German left-leaning daily), columnist Ambros Waibel argues that journalism has long relied on formulaic, cliché-driven content that AI can now replicate cheaply and at scale, pointing to scandals such as the Relotius affair — in which a Der Spiegel journalist was found to have fabricated stories — as evidence that the industry has prioritised audience expectations over rigorous, original reporting. The piece warns that unless journalism can consistently offer what AI cannot — direct eyewitness accounts, genuine investigative scoops, or truly original analysis — the sector faces the same fate as human translators, who have largely been displaced by machine translation tools, leaving only a niche, high-cost market behind.