AI Sports Illustrated Article Scandal Rocks Arena Group With CEO Fired
Arena Group, best known as the publisher of Sports Illustrated, has fired its CEO after an AI article scandal rocked the company. This comes weeks after it was revealed that Sports Illustrated had published articles using AI.
This follows a report back in November by Futurism that found that a company partnered with Sports Illustrated, AdVon, had used AI to not only generate content, but authors to mask the use of AI. The company used AI-generated headshots and biographies of fake authors to mask the use of AI content in their company.
On Monday, The Arena Group’s board announced that CEO Ross Levisohn was fired from his position. Taking over his role will be Manoj Bhargava who was named the interim chief executive. But they didn’t go so far as to admit that the magazine had used AI-generated content.
Instead, according to The Guardian, the board said it followed a meeting on actions to “improve the operational efficiency and revenue of the company.” Back in November when the report was first released, Sports Illustrated denied any use of AI in generating content.
You can read the statement below:
With that said, the company still moved to cut ties with Advon and removed its content from company websites. This comes as the journalism industry looks to find ways of dealing with AI and AI-generated content.
Over the last two years, publishers, papers, and media companies have wrestled with ways to harness AI ethically to reduce backlash. Some have moved slowly while others have taken rapid leaps forward hoping AI could help them gain a competitive edge.
For example, G/O Media announced this past summer tests toward using AI-generated content in their portfolio of news sites. But others such as Gannett and The Associated Press are moving slower while emphasizing how they’re taking employee feedback on how to best use AI tools.
Though in the case of later, two, employees seem a bit apprehensive, it is clear that companies are looking for ways to bring AI into the journalism fold. How this will turn out is still too early to tell, but the impact will shape journalism for decades to come.
Originally posted on OpenDataScience.com
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