Yesterday's report by Futurism’s Maggie Harrison that Sports Illustrated “published stories that were produced or partially produced by artificial intelligence, and that some stories had bylines of fake authors,” has “generated both shock and disdain” in the day following the publication, according to Tom Jones of POYNTER. The report noted the “fake authors even included AI-generated mugshots.” Jones writes if the report is true, that is “pretty gross.” Jones: “Photos of authors who don’t actually exist, to go along with made-up bios that included made-up hobbies and even made-up pets.” The stories in question “do not appear to be the traditional sports features we’re all familiar with when it comes to Sports Illustrated,” instead they were “more along the lines of product features and reviews.” Jones: “Not that it makes any difference.” Following the story, the Sports Illustrated Union put out a statement saying it was “horrified” by the details in the story and it went on to call for “answers and transparency” from The Arena Group, the parent company of Sports Illustrated. Yesterday, a spokesperson for The Arena Group put out this statement, in part saying: “The articles in question were product reviews and were licensed content from an external, third-party company, AdVon Commerce. A number of AdVon’s e-commerce articles ran on certain Arena websites. We continually monitor our partners and were in the midst of a review when these allegations were raised.” Jones writes we “shouldn’t be surprised” after The Wall Street Journal’s Alexandra Bruell wrote a story in February with the headline “Sports Illustrated Publisher Taps AI to Generate Articles, Story Ideas.” Jones notes the Futurism story has “again unsettled journalists concerned about AI-created content, especially when you see a name such as Sports Illustrated involved” (POYNTER, 11/28).
