You explain to me how anything but a human being will establish relationships with various leaders/sources and follow what's happening around the world or in one's beat. How will AI ask the right questions to ferret out the information the source doesn't want you to know? How will AI convince a source to reveal confidential information? How will AI know to go through old paper records to confirm information that has a bearing on what's happening today?

You seem to believe all information exists and it only has to be collated. That is so amazingly ridiculous. Information does not make itself. It requires a human being.

I recall hearing about a bunch of college students who honestly thought that to cover a Watergate-style story today, one would just have to Google stuff and it would be there.

Nope, it wouldn't have been. It took investigative journalists to uncover that. There is no other way.

Also, it's "farrier."

Your belief that a farrier and a mechanic is a fair comparison to AI and a trained journalist makes me weep. Are people really so clueless?