The Sun-Times' AI content also includes made up experts, quotes, and publications. It's the same story, over and over: a news outlet outsources work to freelancers or third-party firms that use AI, and that content is thrown in with actual human work w/o review. www.theverge.com/ai-artificia... - ThreadSky

miasato.bsky.social • 15 days ago

The Sun-Times' AI content also includes made up experts, quotes, and publications. It's the same story, over and over: a news outlet outsources work to freelancers or third-party firms that use AI, and that content is thrown in with actual human work w/o review.
https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/670510/chicago-sun-times-ai-generated-reading-list

Comments

landisweaver.bsky.social•15 days ago

One of my first AI experiments was asking it to write how someone should introduce me at a speech. I played with it. It is freaky because even when it's wrong it is plausible.

cv-danes.com•15 days ago

"We value your trust in our reporting, but we value profit more."

lloyddavis.ca•15 days ago

Here’s the thing, though: the Sun-Times is owned by a nonprofit that also operates the city’s NPR outlet. Their sales dept. likely accepted the advertorial insert as a way to help pay the bills, but clearly didn’t look under the hood.

cv-danes.com•15 days ago

This may be true, but it still begs the question of if they're replacing writers with AI, then what do they believe their mission really is?

lloyddavis.ca•15 days ago

The company that produced the supplement (King Features/Hearst) hired a freelancer who used a generative LLM. I don’t condone it, but I can’t imagine he was making more than a dime a word, so I can understand why he resorted to it. The newspapers (the Philly Inquirer also ran the insert) trusted …

lloyddavis.ca•15 days ago

… a supplier that has been selling columns and crosswords and comics to newspapers for over 100 years. That trust was abused. They were victims, but what troubles me is the insert doesn’t appear to have been flagged as advertising. I don’t know if that’s standard procedure in the US. In Canada…

lloyddavis.ca•15 days ago

… it would certainly be labelled. It’s therefore not unreasonable for the public to think the newsroom failed here, but it’s not on them. Nor is it completely on the paper’s sales department. It really speaks to the state of media today, and part of that is because ads of any kind have dried up.

greenhombre.bsky.social•15 days ago

I look forward to reading Ernest Hemingway's new book this summer.

joshuajfriedman.com•15 days ago

The Philadelphia Inquirer ran the section too, I'm afraid!

katjathieme.bsky.social•15 days ago

What the heck.

kieranblake.bsky.social•14 days ago

I haven’t seen a statement from them about it (here). UGH! 😡😱🤢

ccherioli.bsky.social•15 days ago

Just fucking wrap it up and call it a day.

llyrkellow.bsky.social•15 days ago

"We value your trust in our reporting and take this very seriously."
Bullshit. If they really believe this they (and the other mainstream media) would hire actual investigative journalists and pay them decently. They're only in it for the $$$

zodda.bsky.social•15 days ago

The fake Andy Weir book about evil AI would have been a really nice touch if they were doing a bit.

realmattbeck.bsky.social•15 days ago

And all the while the work of real people is undervalued and cast aside. Writers more than anything will need to band together soon in a zero AI alliance.

miasato.bsky.social•15 days ago

I understand that people use AI for "research" but attributing quotes to one of the most famous food personalities in the world and not thinking to check it is just lazy. These are mistakes that don't need to happen.

miasato.bsky.social•15 days ago

If you're interested in the type of third-party firm that big, reputable media companies hire to pollute their sites, check out my deep dive from last year on a guy who has been doing this for years:
https://www.theverge.com/24195879/advon-commerce-ai-sports-illustrated-gannett-product-reviews-spam-seo

aetherclaw.bsky.social•15 days ago

at best it's fraud and it's also known to be wrong more often then right while violating the basic rights of thousands by even existing in the first place. there is no excuse for using it for anything at all ever.

iplayguitarbad.bsky.social•15 days ago

I'm sure that the execs at these companies are comfortable because they have contractual clauses with their freelancers or whatever. I'm sure they believe those "controls" are effective.

aetherclaw.bsky.social•15 days ago

the fight to end and abolish modern AI is at the intersection of everyone's basic rights. from the invasive and totalitarian surveillance, to the theft of both labor & private data, to the destruction of human knowledge, to the militarized use of it, to the environmental and public health harm.

mercurialmiss.bsky.social•15 days ago

So much for the nobility of journalism.

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