Sports Illustrated denied reports that the magazine published AI-generated content, but acknowledged that some articles were published under fabricated names.
A spokesperson for Arena Group, the magazine’s publisher, said the article in question was licensed from a third-party company, Adbon Commerce, and the company said, “All articles in question were written and edited by humans.” I guarantee that.”
However, some articles were published by authors who used “pen names or pseudonyms in certain articles to protect the author’s privacy.”
A spokesperson said the group “strongly condemns” these actions and has since ended its partnership with AdVon. Arena Group also said it would remove all content from AdVon online.
“Today an article was published claiming that Sports Illustrated published an article generated by AI. Based on our initial investigation, this is not accurate,” the statement began. “The article in question was a product review and was licensed content from AdVon Commerce, an external third-party company. Many of AdVon’s e-commerce articles were published on certain Arena websites. We has been continuously monitoring its partners and was in the midst of an investigation when these allegations were raised.”
The issue first came to public attention when Futurism posted a report on part of the author page on Sports Illustrated’s website that listed a person who did not appear to exist anywhere else on the magazine’s website. It was after the announcement. At least one of the mugshots used was also for sale on his website, which sells AI-generated mugshots.
However, the Futurist press claimed that some of the author’s writings “often sound like they were written by aliens.” The article cited an example of an article warning that volleyball “can be a little difficult to get started, especially if you don’t have an actual ball to practice with.”
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