The New York Times is moving technology reporter Cade Metz to its Science desk, where he will cover artificial intelligence as a field of scientific research. Metz, who joined the Times in 2017 to cover emerging technologies on the Business desk, will start the new assignment Monday and continue working from the newspaper's San Francisco bureau.
The move gives the Science desk a dedicated reporter for AI, a subject that has become central to research across disciplines while also raising unresolved questions about its own progress and limits. Metz will also continue covering quantum computing, an area he has reported on extensively for the Times' technology team.
A beat shaped before the AI boom
Metz has covered artificial intelligence since before generative AI products like ChatGPT made the technology a mainstream focus. When he applied to the Times, he identified neural networks and graphics processing units as two technologies likely to drive AI's development.
His early work at the newspaper included a 2017 Sunday Business cover story on computing infrastructure designed to accelerate AI. The following year, he reported on the emergence of early large language models, the technology that would eventually underpin widely used AI chatbots.
His 2026 reporting has included an examination of whether AI systems can generate new ideas and a story exploring the uneven nature of advances in artificial intelligence. He also reported on a company from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos focused on using AI to accelerate the development of products including spacecraft, automobiles, and computer hardware.
From Wired to a book on AI's founders
Before joining the Times, Metz was a writer at Wired in San Francisco. In 2021, Penguin Random House published his book, "Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World," which chronicled the researchers and ideas behind the rise of artificial intelligence at major technology companies.
Metz also led a 2024 Times investigation into how OpenAI, Google, and Meta gathered data from the internet to train AI systems. That same year, he was part of a team that received a Loeb Award for a feature examining Elon Musk's influence in the satellite internet market.
"Cade has done as much as any reporter in the country to explain the A.I. story to people outside Silicon Valley," said James Kerstetter, deputy editor on the Times' Tech team. Kerstetter cited Metz's longstanding relationships with researchers and his understanding of the technology before the arrival of ChatGPT.
A shift in how the Times frames AI coverage
Science editor Bill Wasik said the new beat reflects AI's growing role across scientific disciplines as well as the need to examine advances in the field as a scientific subject in their own right.
"At a moment when the rise of artificial intelligence is transforming nearly every beat that The Times covers, it's long overdue for the Science desk to have a reporter dedicated to the subject," Wasik said in announcing the move.
Moving Metz from the technology team to Science signals a shift in how the Times intends to frame part of its AI coverage. While artificial intelligence remains a major business and technology story, the new assignment will approach the field through the same lens the Science desk applies to other areas of research and discovery.
For professionals working in science and research, the new beat means more coverage of how AI contributes to discoveries alongside scrutiny of the technology's limitations and open questions. That includes the kind of reporting Metz has already done this year on whether AI can generate new ideas and where progress has been uneven. Those working in the field can also follow AI Research Courses to stay current on the technical side, or explore AI for Science & Research for training tied directly to scientific applications.
Why this matters for science and research professionals
The Times' decision to treat AI as a science beat rather than only a business story reflects a broader shift in how the field is understood. For researchers, that means more attention to how AI is being used across disciplines, what it can and cannot do, and which questions remain unresolved. Metz's reporting will track those developments with the same rigor applied to other areas of scientific inquiry, giving professionals a reliable source for following the field's progress and its limits.
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