AI Tries To Write The News: Is proposed fee hike at Mendenhall Glacier paying for time travel?

Cybercorrespondent also seems extremely confused about Huna Totem cruise dock, which it places on Douglas Island

AI-generated image supposedly showing tourists at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center, as published by Travel and Tour World on Thursday, July 9, 2026.

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

Editor’s note: AI Tries To Write The News is a regular feature intended to familiarize readers with what AI-generated news content looks like. The AI content should not be considered factual or "reporting" in any sense other than as a basis of comparison to human-written articles.

If paying $15 instead of $5 allows you to see the Mendenhall Glacier as it appeared 50 years ago that seems like a pretty good deal.

People reading an article published Thursday by Travel and Tour World might get a very cool — and utterly false — impression of what a trip to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center is like these days. The article’s cover photo shows a glacier that, based on a NASA satellite image, existed many decades ago before its recent retreat beyond the surface of Mendenhall Lake.

It’s one of at least two articles published by travel websites that day using AI elements in articles about the proposed fee increase at the visitor center. The other, by Nomad Lawyer, features an AI cover photo with a more realistic view of the current glacier face, but with a wood plank walkway and other features at the center that exist only as computer algorithms.

Both publications have published other AI content about tourism in Juneau, including previews of this year’s visitor season that included fake photos of Alaska Natives engaging in Celebration-like activities.

The text of both glacier fee hike articles appears to be human-enhanced AI content, meaning a person or persons did some editing to computer-generated copy, according to AI-detection websites. Neither contains blatantly false "facts" that are common in AI-generated text (read further for such an example in a different article). Which is a relief since both appear to rely heavily — without attribution — on a Juneau Independent article published last Wednesday about the proposed fee hikes.

An AI-generated image supposedly showing tourists at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center, as published by Nomad Lawyer on Thursday, July 9, 2026.

Both Nomad Lawyer and Travel and Tour World focus on the same general theme and quote the same tour operator who was at a June 24 public meeting hosted by the U.S. Forest Service. But while Nomad Lawyer paraphrases her remarks rather than actually quoting them, Travel and Tour World puts invented words in her mouth:

• The actual words (reported by the Independent and verified with a reporter’s recording of the event): “You guys need all the money, you deserve all the money,” said Serene Hutchinson, an owner of Juneau Tours, during a U.S. Forest Service open house June 24 at the Juneau Ranger District station. “I think the Mendenhall Glacier is worth $15 as an entrance fee, but unfortunately, if this is required of us to pre-collect, it will price me so far out I might as well sell all my trolleys and buy a bunch of Turos.”

• Travel and Tour World’s version: "The Mendenhall Glacier is unquestionably worth a fifteen-dollar entry fee, but if our companies are forced to pre-collect this added burden, it will price local transport operations so far out of the competitive market that entrepreneurs might as well liquidate their historic trolley fleets and exit the travel industry entirely,” warned Serene Hutchinson, the seasoned owner of Juneau Tours.

There are no known recordings or transcripts of that event posted online, nor any other prior news coverage of the meeting quoting Hutchinson.

Ironically, at the end of the Travel and Tour World article is this notice: "This content is protected under the Copyright Act. Unauthorized scraping, AI extraction, reproduction, or republication is strictly prohibited."

Huna Totem shrinks its cruise dock — and moves it to West Douglas?

Another article published Saturday clearly scrapes from a Juneau Independent article published Friday about Huna Totem Corp. drastically downsizing plans for its private cruise ship dock in downtown Juneau. But the article at thetraveler.org is clearly confused in many ways about what it is purporting to report.

It refers to "city leaders" making the downsizing decision, never refers to Huna Totem and claims the "Douglas Island cruise ship terminal proposal, envisioned as a new deep-water facility to ease congestion in downtown Juneau, has evolved over several years from a bold expansion plan into a more modest project."

Which means the article clearly has Huna Totem’s Áak’w Landing confused with Goldbelt Inc.’s proposed Goldbelt Aaní along the west of West Douglas. There’s no chance the article actually is referring to Goldbelt’s dock, since it highlights the $250 million current project cost Huna Totem is citing as the cause to shrink development to fit its intended $150 million budget.

After the opening few paragraphs the article wanders in various directions in a manner common to AI-generated text, with short sections broken by subheadings such as "Record Cruise Traffic and a Changing Policy Climate," "Cost Pressures Reshape Alaska Port Investments," and "Environmental Scrutiny and Marine Mammal Protections."

Among those, the article does generally lock onto a primary — and false — theme: "By scaling back the Douglas Island project, Juneau is signaling that incremental improvements may be more realistic than a single flagship development, at least in the near term."

Goldbelt has shown no signs of scaling back its project — indeed, CEO McHugh Pierre has said the company’s two-ship pier that can accommodate up to 500,000 passengers a year may be just the beginning of more extensive development on land the company owns on the island.

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.