Chicago Sun-Times publishes made-up books and fake experts in AI debacle
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Summary
Chicago Sun-Times published a summer activities supplement on 18 May that included a number of fictional books and sources.
Titles by acclaimed authors such as Min Jin Lee and Rebecca Makkai were credited to the wrong authors, and articles quoted experts such as a “Dr Jennifer Campos, professor of leisure studies at the University of Colorado”, who does not appear to exist.
The newspaper has apologised and blamed a “national content partner”, identified as media giant Hearst, and said it was removing the supplement from digital editions and would be updating its policies to prevent such an occurrence in future.
The supplement’s creator, Marco Busaglia, admitted to using AI for some material, but was dismissive of its presence in this supplement, saying “I can’t believe I missed it because it’s so obvious”.