The Washington Post, owned by Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos, has been using AI for quite a while. For example, there’s an AI-generated podcast, and the tech is used to generate article summaries. Now, though, it seems that AI is even being used to determine how much the Daily’s subscribers will pay – by crunching your data.

In recent days, many Washington Post subscribers received an email notifying them that their subscription rate will increase soon.

Sadly, everything’s getting more expensive lately, so what can you do, right? Well, according to The Washingtonian, at the bottom of the email, those readers also found an asterisk and a cheeky explanation: “This price was set by an algorithm using your personal data.”

Algorithmic pricing is not new – Uber, most major airlines, and Ticketmaster are using an AI-driven algorithm to analyze customer data and determine how much they can – allegedly reasonably – charge.

A Bezos-flavored downward spiral

But the schemes are extremely controversial. First, why should you pay more if AI decides you’re rich enough because you, say, live in an affluent neighborhood?

Secondly, it’s your data. The fact that AI can crunch it to a granular level is scary enough, but it looks much worse when the algorithm uses your information to arrive at a conclusion that you may indeed be fine with spending more on certain stuff.

Cybernews has contacted The Washington Post for clarification on what types of reader data are used to determine individual subscription prices and how transparency and fairness are ensured in the process.

It is, of course, plainly pathetic when a once-revered newspaper behaves this way, embracing AI hype and pushing it onto its readership, which is shrinking already, by the way.

The Washington Post lost over 250,000 subscribers in late 2024 when Bezos blocked a presidential endorsement, and 60,000 cancellations followed when Bezos laid off 44% of the daily’s newsroom in February.

The newspaper has embraced AI wholeheartedly, it seems. In December, it caused a mini scandal after launching an AI-generated podcast that was soon caught inventing facts and misattributing quotes, and The Post is already using AI to generate article summaries.

Bezos’s Amazon also uses a dynamic pricing scheme that determines prices based on factors such as demand and location. But how would it work for a newspaper subscription?

According to Luca Cian, a professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, quoted in The Washingtonian, it’s likely that the algorithm will determine that readers who read the daily a lot will tolerate higher pricing.

AI-powered tools can easily get that information, Cian warns: “We are in an age and time where we might need to assume that there is very little privacy left.”

Are corporations ripping us off?

There’s some movement against these types of maneuvers in Washington, though. In July 2025, US Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas) introduced the Stop AI Price Gouging and Wage Fixing Act.

This is the first federal proposal to ban companies from using AI to set prices or wages based on Americans’ personal data.

The bill would prohibit practices like an airline raising prices for an individual after seeing her search for a family obituary or a ride share app paying a driver less after seeing that she visited a pawn shop.

“Giant corporations should not be allowed to jack up your prices or lower your wages using data they got spying on you,” said Casar.

“Whether you know it or not, you may already be getting ripped off by corporations using your personal data to charge you more. This problem is only going to get worse, and Congress should act before this becomes a full-blown crisis.”

Reacting to the report about The Washington Post now using the algorithm to determine subscription rates, Casar commented: “This is called ‘surveillance pricing.’ It should be illegal.”

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