Sports Illustrated published AI-generated articles with fake author bylines and AI-generated headshots, deceiving readers about the human authorship of content on their website.
In November 2023, Futurism reported that Sports Illustrated had been publishing product review articles attributed to non-existent authors with AI-generated profile photos and biographies. The fake authors included Drew Ortiz, described as someone who 'spent much of his life outdoors' and Sora Tanaka, allegedly a 'fitness guru.' Their profile photos were traced to a website selling AI-generated headshots where they were listed as 'neutral white young-adult male' and 'joyful asian young-adult female.' Sources told Futurism that the articles themselves were also AI-generated, with one stating 'The content is absolutely AI-generated, no matter how much they say that it's not.' The Arena Group, Sports Illustrated's publisher, initially denied the allegations, claiming the content came from a third-party contractor AdVon Commerce and that only pseudonyms were used to protect author privacy. However, after the story broke, all the suspicious content disappeared from the website without explanation. The incident led to the firing of CEO Ross Levinsohn and three other executives. Similar practices were also found at other Arena Group publications including TheStreet. The fake authors were periodically replaced with new AI-generated personas, and articles were reattributed without editor's notes explaining the changes.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that inadvertently generate or spread incorrect or deceptive information, which can lead to inaccurate beliefs in users and undermine their autonomy. Humans that make decisions based on false beliefs can experience physical, emotional or material harms
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed
No population impact data reported.