The Arena Group, publisher of Sports Illustrated, has fired its CEO Ross Levinsohn. This comes on the heels of a scandal involving AI-generated articles and fake writers.
The dismissal was announced as part of measures to increase the company's efficiency and revenue. The AI articles are not mentioned in the context of the dismissal.
The AI scandal uncovered by Futurism involved articles with AI-generated portraits and biographies, including a fake author profile for "Sora Tanaka" who was an AI persona posing as a human.
"Sora has always been a fitness guru, and loves to try different foods and drinks. Ms Tanaka is thrilled to bring her fitness and nutritional expertise to the Product Reviews Team, and promises to bring you nothing but the best of the best."
Fake profile of the AI persona "Sora Tanaka"
Arena Group, which acquired Sports Illustrated in 2019, denied the allegations and blamed the content on advertising agency AdVon Commerce. The company has since ended its partnership with AdVon and removed the content from Arena's websites, The Guardian reports. Manoj Bhargava, the founder of the company behind the 5-Hour Energy Drink, has been named interim CEO.
Financial website Investing.com blamed for AI-copying competitor articles
Financial news site Investing.com has allegedly used AI to plagiarize articles from competitors. The site, which is owned by Joffre Capital, says it uses AI to create content, but does not specify which sources it imitates.
Competitors such as FXStreet and The Motley Fool have noticed the similarities, and some have expressed concern about the potential damage to original content creation, Semafor reports.
In Germany, the tabloid newspaper "Kölner Express" is experimenting with AI-generated articles by the fictional author "Klara Indernach" ("KI" aka AI). On the author's page, the Express shows an AI-generated portrait of a young woman.
The Express states in the author's text that this is an AI account. However, you will only see this if you click on the author's page and read the text there - which very few readers will do. It is an example of a lack of transparency and a willingness to deceive readers, and shows how AI should not be used in journalism.