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☆ Opinion: What the Sports Illustrated AI debacle is telling us
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Opinion Will Leitch | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

(Full disclosure: I briefly hosted a television show for Sports Illustrated a few years back that no one watched.) But the only difference between those sports sites using AI writers and other sports sites using AI writers is that people actually used to enjoy Sports Illustrated and Deadspin; Yahoo, for example, has been contracted with a company called “Automated Insights” to write AI sport stories for years. Another game I like to play in my downtime is NBA2K, the wildly popular NBA video game. But in the game, Aldridge is not real; he’s just some pixels synced to audio the real Aldridge recorded years ago. Sports writers insist, as we fight back against a creeping AI world, that we can always do our jobs better than a robot can.

Persons: Will Leitch, ”, it’s, I’m, —, William Faulkner, Robert Frost, John Steinbeck, AdVon, Richard Johnson, Emma Baccellieri, Pat Forde, Tom Verducci, you’ve, It’s, Fox, Charissa Thompson, I’ve, Hall, Hall of Famer Andrea Kremer, Thompson, “, can’t, Curt Gowdy, David Aldridge, Aldridge, Video Aldridge, Julius Randle, Randle, … I’d Organizations: New York Magazine, CNN, Park Baseball, MLB, Sports, The Arena Group, The, Group, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo, Amazon, Hall of Famer, New York Times, NBA, Video Knicks

Three years ago, journalists at Sports Illustrated were worried that the venerable magazine’s new owners and operators were drastically lowering its standards. On Monday, the science and technology publication Futurism reported that Sports Illustrated had published product reviews under fake author names with fake author biographies. “If true, these practices violate everything we believe in about journalism,” the union representing Sports Illustrated journalists said in a statement after the report was published. “We deplore being associated with something so disrespectful to our readers.”The Arena Group, which publishes Sports Illustrated under a complicated management structure, blamed a vendor, AdVon Commerce, for the situation. Sports Illustrated licenses product reviews from AdVon, and AdVon assured the Arena Group that “all of the articles in question were written and edited by humans,” said Rachael Fink, an Arena Group spokeswoman.

Persons: AdVon, ”, Rachael Fink, “ Organizations: Sports Illustrated, Sports, Group, AdVon Commerce, Arena Group

Sports Illustrated is the latest media company to see its reputation damaged by being less than forthcoming — if not outright dishonest — about who or what is writing its stories at the dawn of the artificial intelligence age. The once-powerful publication said it was firing a company that produced articles for its website written under the byline of authors who apparently don't exist. Earlier this year, experiments with AI went awry at both the Gannett newspaper chain and the CNET technology website. On Monday, the Futurism website reported that Sports Illustrated used stories for product reviews that had authors it could not identify. At the end of each such story is a note that explains technology's role in its production, a spokeswoman said.

Persons: ”, Tom Rosenstiel, ” Rosenstiel, “, Jeff Jarvis, Drew Ortiz, “ Drew, AdVon, AdVon wasn't, LedeAI, Jarvis, Gannett, Connie Guglielmo, ” Guglielmo, Emma Heegar, ” Buzzfeed, ” ___ David Bauder Organizations: Gannett, CNET, University of Maryland, Arena, Time Inc, “, AdVon Commerce, Sports Illustrated Union, Staff, Associated Press, NBA, Data Locations: Santa Barbara, Calif, Sportradar

☆ Sports Illustrated reportedly published articles by fake AI-generated writers
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Tom Carter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sports Illustrated published articles by fake authors with AI-generated profile pictures, Futurism reported. The magazine denied using AI but said it would take down the articles while it investigated. The magazine said it will take down several articles after a report found they were written by fake, AI-generated authors. Futurism identified two Sports Illustrated writers, " Drew Ortiz" and " Sora Tanaka ," whose biographies appeared to be fake. In a statement to Futurism, Sports Illustrated owner Arena Group denied publishing AI-generated articles but said they were removing the pieces while an internal investigation took place.

Persons: —, Drew Ortiz, Sora Tanaka, Ortiz's, Ross Levinsohn Organizations: Service, Sports Illustrated, Sports, Arena Group, AdVon Commerce, Arena, Gannett, Tech, CNET, Business Locations: NewsGuard

☆ Sports Illustrated deletes articles published under fake author names and AI-generated profile photos
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( Liam Reilly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Sports Illustrated on Monday said it had deleted several articles from its website after a report found the once-celebrated legacy magazine had published the pieces under fake author names and profile images generated by artificial intelligence. The report, which was published by Futurism, found that the magazine had repeatedly published articles whose authors could not be found online outside the Sports Illustrated website. The articles were all accompanied by AI-generated profile photos that Futurism also found for sale on digital marketplaces that sell AI-produced headshots. “We deplore being associated with something so disrespectful to our readers.”Sports Illustrated writers also reacted with disgust in social media posts. — I take seriously the weight of a Sports Illustrated byline,” Emma Baccellieri, a staff writer for the magazine, posted to X.

Persons: —, “, AdVon, ”, “ AdVon, ” AdVon, couldn’t, ” Emma Baccellieri, Mitch Goldich Organizations: CNN —, Sports Illustrated, Illustrated, The, CNN, AdVon Commerce, Arena, Gannett, Sports Illustrated Union, Sports, Online

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