Sports Illustrated deleted a number of articles from its website after a shocking report alleging that it was publishing AI-generated content credited to made-up writers who don’t exist.
The once-esteemed sports publication that has alienated readers after going “woke” reacted to the claims made by the website Futurism in an article that purports to show examples of the bogus author bios, denying the allegations and passing the buck to a third-party company.
In its article, Futurism writes of an SI author bio for “Drew Ortiz” who “has spent much of his life outdoors” and enjoys “camping” and “hiking” as well as hanging out on his “parents’ farm.”
Sports Illustrated has been publishing stories written by AI — and attributing them to writers that don’t exist.
Profiles for fake authors used AI-generated headshots and made-up bios.
When asked about it, all content was deleted.
(h/t @futurism) pic.twitter.com/8PAMzk9h0q
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) November 27, 2023
“The only problem? Outside of Sports Illustrated, Drew Ortiz doesn’t seem to exist. He has no social media presence and no publishing history,” Futurism states. “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.'”
“There’s a lot,” one anonymous person involved with the content creation with the questionable content told Futurism. “I was like, what are they? This is ridiculous. This person does not exist.”
“The content is absolutely AI-generated,” said another source quoted by the outlet, “no matter how much they say that it’s not.”
The article also listed other examples, including “Sora Tanaka,” who is identified as “a fitness guru, and loves to try different foods and drinks,” but who also does not exist.
In a statement posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, the Sports Illustrated Union reacted to the bombshell dropped by Futurism, saying that it was “horrified” by the story.
Our response to today’s story from @futurism reporting that The Arena Group has published AI-written stories by fake people under the Sports Illustrated name: pic.twitter.com/QcR4iGOi5w
— Sports Illustrated Union (@si_union) November 27, 2023
“We, the workers of the SI Union, are horrified by a story on the site Futurism, reporting that Sports Illustrated’s parent company, The Arena Group, has published Al-generated content under SI’s brand with fabricated bylines and writer profiles. If true, these practices violate everything we believe in about journalism. We deplore being associated with something so disrespectful to our readers,” the statement reads.
“We want to be very clear: What is described in this Futurism story does not represent the hardworking journalists who make up the SI Union,” the union added. “For nearly 70 years, Sl staff members have held themselves to the highest possible ethical standards. As members of the SI Union, we are proud to be part of that legacy and work every day to protect it. We expect management to do the same.”
SI writers also reacted to the report, sharing their sense of betrayal on X.
“Along with basic principles of honesty, trust, journalistic ethics, etc. — I take seriously the weight of a Sports Illustrated byline. It meant something to me long before I ever dreamed of working here. This report was horrifying to read,” said Emma Baccellieri, a staff writer who covers MLB – women’s basketball.
“The practices described in the story published today do real damage to the credibility of the hardworking humans I have been honored to work with for the past 9 years,” wrote Mitch Goldich, another writer and editor.
The Arena Group, which publishes Sports Illustrated issued a statement blaming the outside third party.
“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,” the statement reads. “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,” the Arena Group said.
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