Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated Writers (futurism.com) 45
Futurism has accused Sports Illustrated of publishing AI-generated articles under fake author biographies. The magazine has since removed the articles in question and released a statement blaming the issue on a contractor. From the report: There was nothing in Drew Ortiz's author biography at Sports Illustrated to suggest that he was anything other than human. "Drew has spent much of his life outdoors, and is excited to guide you through his never-ending list of the best products to keep you from falling to the perils of nature," it read. "Nowadays, there is rarely a weekend that goes by where Drew isn't out camping, hiking, or just back on his parents' farm." The only problem? Outside of Sports Illustrated, Drew Ortiz doesn't seem to exist. He has no social media presence and no publishing history. And even more strangely, his profile photo on Sports Illustrated is for sale on a website that sells AI-generated headshots, where he's described as "neutral white young-adult male with short brown hair and blue eyes."
Ortiz isn't the only AI-generated author published by Sports Illustrated, according to a person involved with the creation of the content who asked to be kept anonymous to protect them from professional repercussions. "There's a lot," they told us of the fake authors. "I was like, what are they? This is ridiculous. This person does not exist." "At the bottom [of the page] there would be a photo of a person and some fake description of them like, 'oh, John lives in Houston, Texas. He loves yard games and hanging out with his dog, Sam.' Stuff like that," they continued. "It's just crazy."
According to a second person involved in the creation of the Sports Illustrated content who also asked to be kept anonymous, that's because it's not just the authors' headshots that are AI-generated. At least some of the articles themselves, they said, were churned out using AI as well. "The content is absolutely AI-generated," the second source said, "no matter how much they say that it's not." After we reached out with questions to the magazine's publisher, The Arena Group, all the AI-generated authors disappeared from Sports Illustrated's site without explanation. [...] Though Sports Illustrated's AI-generated authors and their articles disappeared after we asked about them, similar operations appear to be alive and well elsewhere in The Arena Group's portfolio. An Arena Group spokesperson issued the following statement blaming a contractor for the content: "Today, an article was published alleging that Sports Illustrated published AI-generated articles. According to our initial investigation, this is not accurate. 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. AdVon has assured us that all of the articles in question were written and edited by humans. According to AdVon, their writers, editors, and researchers create and curate content and follow a policy that involves using both counter-plagiarism and counter-AI software on all content. However, we have learned that AdVon had writers use a pen or pseudo name in certain articles to protect author privacy -- actions we don't condone -- and we are removing the content while our internal investigation continues and have since ended the partnership."
Ortiz isn't the only AI-generated author published by Sports Illustrated, according to a person involved with the creation of the content who asked to be kept anonymous to protect them from professional repercussions. "There's a lot," they told us of the fake authors. "I was like, what are they? This is ridiculous. This person does not exist." "At the bottom [of the page] there would be a photo of a person and some fake description of them like, 'oh, John lives in Houston, Texas. He loves yard games and hanging out with his dog, Sam.' Stuff like that," they continued. "It's just crazy."
According to a second person involved in the creation of the Sports Illustrated content who also asked to be kept anonymous, that's because it's not just the authors' headshots that are AI-generated. At least some of the articles themselves, they said, were churned out using AI as well. "The content is absolutely AI-generated," the second source said, "no matter how much they say that it's not." After we reached out with questions to the magazine's publisher, The Arena Group, all the AI-generated authors disappeared from Sports Illustrated's site without explanation. [...] Though Sports Illustrated's AI-generated authors and their articles disappeared after we asked about them, similar operations appear to be alive and well elsewhere in The Arena Group's portfolio. An Arena Group spokesperson issued the following statement blaming a contractor for the content: "Today, an article was published alleging that Sports Illustrated published AI-generated articles. According to our initial investigation, this is not accurate. 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. AdVon has assured us that all of the articles in question were written and edited by humans. According to AdVon, their writers, editors, and researchers create and curate content and follow a policy that involves using both counter-plagiarism and counter-AI software on all content. However, we have learned that AdVon had writers use a pen or pseudo name in certain articles to protect author privacy -- actions we don't condone -- and we are removing the content while our internal investigation continues and have since ended the partnership."
Just as real as Kim Kardashians Instagram (Score:2, Insightful)
All so spontaneous and personal.
But we're all craving for this kind of 'information'.
Who cares? (Score:1)
Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Informative)
From TFA
one Ortiz article, for instance, warns that volleyball "can be a little tricky to get into, especially without an actual ball to practice with."
What was that you were saying about the articles being "informative, well-written, and enjoyable to read"?
Re:Who cares? (Score:5, Informative)
I object to the use of AI "writers" on several grounds.
1) Using manufactured personas is dishonest. I don't care about a plucky reporter's origin story. But if I'm hearing a story by nobody, I'd like to know.
2) Contra today's earlier article, AI is dis-employing writers.
3) It suggests that the owners of SI don't really respect their readers, writers, or sports themselves, and provides a good example of Capital enshittifying everything it touches to get a little richer so it can buy more things to make shittier.
The article was cobbled together according to a set of rules, but conveys no human intent, idea, or POV (often useful in sportswriting. It is the prose-equivalent of wind-chimes- any melody or meaning is the result of efforts by the listener.
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1) Using manufactured personas is dishonest.
Sports writing has always been formulaic, with templates and story generators. This is just another step.
But if I'm hearing a story by nobody, I'd like to know.
"Like to know" isn't "right to know". If you don't like Sports Illustrated, don't subscribe.
AI is dis-employing writers.
That is a GOOD THING. Automating work is the foundation of our prosperity. It is what separates the developing world from SH countries. People always object while it's happening, but later universally agree it was a good thing. Nobody wants to abolish ATMs, self-dialing phones, and flush toilets despite all the un
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"Like to know" isn't "right to know". If you don't like Sports Illustrated, don't subscribe.
The problem is GP could not know, and as you suggest this knowledge would have changed the decision to purchase. Which is what makes it a fraud. The amount is too inconsequential to sue, of course.
developing world from SH countries.
South Heurope?
AI-generated content has won awards from judges who didn't know it was AI-generated, so the objective evidence is that it can be just as creative as humans, despite your "feelings".
There is also a story that random garbage that was not supposed to be there also won Arts Awards. The whole judgement of creative pieces relies on the common understanding of the creation process and the skills needed to achieve the result. If you just judge by the result, an inkjet printed photograp
Humans blaming AI. (Score:1)
Before jumping to conclusions about the dangers of AI writers, I'd first like to better understand the actual reason that the writers in this case felt the need to use pseudo names.
It's going to be quite a pathetic argument if the reason buried in "author privacy" stems from the current cancel culture that can voraciously attack and destroy writers for creating "offensive" content, since human cancel culture is driven by all those human faults like greed, jealously, or simply trolling to drive profits into
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The pseudo names are used because THERE ARE NO WRITERS.
The whole goddamn story is about articles written by AI. There aren't any human writers to cancel, dumbass.
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"2) Contra today's earlier article, AI is dis-employing writers."
Yes, but that may indirectly be a good thing, because it will finally get people with money and power to do something about job-stealing technology.
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Hey Mr Ortiz is not wrong (Score:2)
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You think you had it bad? We didn't even have a home - we lived in a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a house to us...
Re:Who cares? (Score:4, Informative)
If I am paying for content, I want to know whether it was written by a human, or an AI.
That's all. It's ok with me to use AI to generate content so long as it is disclosed. It should be my choice whether to patronize this or not, on a case-by-case basis. Lying to me by presenting this as human-authored when it is not, THAT is not ok.
Just as we have laws regulating honesty in advertising, and in food ingredient disclosure, we need laws regulating the sale of AI-generated content. And mandatory disclosure is a must-have.
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Sounds like a difference of values. Unlike you, I DO care where my content comes from. It's as simple as that.
Other people care too, which is why we need laws to ensure that those who care, know. Those like you, who do not care, are free to ignore the information.
They should just run with it. (Score:2)
If you have pay for ChatGPT, use GPT4 with this prompt:
Using the internet, writing in an old school western fashion, as a fan of the Chiefs, write an article about the Nov 26, 2023 game between the KC Chiefs and the Raiders.
It searched 3-4 websites before returning the article below. And the persona is interesting (and could be much deeper in context, this is about the simplest example for the flair).
This probably breaks NFL copyright about the descriptions and such (thoughts anyone?). Better than decent
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Ha! I knew it! (Score:2)
I knew there was no way Frank Deford and Karl Taro Greenfeld were real people!
They have been using computer programs (Score:4, Insightful)
A huge part of the reason people gave up on journalism and newspapers is because they stopped giving us useful information when they all got bought out by a handful of billionaires looking to maximize shareholder value and occasionally throw out a little pro billionaire propaganda.
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As long as they publish the swimsuit issue (Score:2)
I don't bother to read the articles.
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Re:As long as they publish the swimsuit issue (Score:4, Insightful)
So what will you do when they start using generative AI instead of models?
That's hilarious, considering what the average model actually looks like without makeup and Photoshop.
You act as if reality has been the cornerstone of that industry.
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Oh, Come On. (Score:2)
They have never cared (Score:3)
About human-written ads masquerading as articles. Why would they care about AI-written ads?
Licensed "Product Reviews" (Score:2)
fake human authors are not new (Score:2)
Aren't some columns, articles (and even books) given bylines of a fictional persona, when the reality is that a stable of staff or contract ghostwriters actually write the material? I don't mean a nome de plume that's hiding a real person. I mean they make up a person. Hasn't this sort of thing been done for a couple centuries?
And now that we can eliminate the un-credited human writers and have an AI do the same thing...
P.S.
One example is "Abigail Van Buren", who writes the Dear Abby advice column. That sta
Deception (Score:2)
Perhaps one of the reasons that people are upset is that the article is intended to personally relate to the reader. It's a story about an aspect of life, from one appreciative human to another. When the truth is that it is an un-thinking not-alive machine being presented as a real person. It is a deception, and can feel manipulative.
A related factor is, "Hey, I paid to read a human-written article! You gave me a crap computer article! I want the real thing!"
Would people read Sports Illustrated if they knew
A former subscriber to the print magazine (Score:2)
As a former subscriber to the print magazine, I thought the writing was just superb. An article about the (now deceased) owner of the Oakland Raiders football team had a quote that still makes me laugh many years later. It went something like this: "Al Davis was a prickly SOB, and you can shorten that to just plain prick if you want."
I let my subscription lapse after the annual swimsuit issue one year had plus size models, and the year after that featured models that were amputees or other had disfigurin
"It's free real estate" for Glorbo (Score:2)
If I recall a user on the subreddit for World of Warcraft recognised that sites using LLM generated articles were clearly using their posts for input to write about WoW, so a nonsensical character called "Glorbo" who in replies was hyped as a real forthcoming feature by the derivative sites.
So, with sports fans having rival teams, it's only a matter of time before the same tactic can be used. QUARTERBACK hospitalised after violent altercation with Sonic The Hedgehog speedrunner.
Or ex-subscribers who're unha
AI... (Score:2)
I think AI was used to write the article that accused SI of using AI to write articles. Now what do we do?
So it's OK ... (Score:2)
I have to wonder if the deny, deny, deflect, nothing-to-see here response has been sitting around for months ready to be deployed when this all got detected. You know there are executives and boardroom types pushing for using AI to make money at a company like this. I find it hard to
Work for hire and rights assignment (Score:2)
AI images can still be quite creepy (Score:1)
Didn't know (Score:2)
The Swimsuit Edition (Score:2)
So? (Score:2)
I don't see the problem. Readers were perfectly happy with it.
AI generated review (Score:1)
We need an AI generated review of the article. Go full circle.
Eventually, we'll get garbage in, and garbage out.