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from the can-AI-be-used-to-create-a-fake-sport? dept.
They were asked about it, and they deleted everything:
There was nothing in Drew Ortiz's author biography at Sports Illustrated to suggest that he was anything other than human.
"Drew has spent much of his life outdoors, and is excited to guide you through his never-ending list of the best products to keep you from falling to the perils of nature," it read. "Nowadays, there is rarely a weekend that goes by where Drew isn't out camping, hiking, or just back on his parents' farm."
The only problem? Outside of Sports Illustrated, Drew Ortiz doesn't seem to exist. He has no social media presence and no publishing history. 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."
Ortiz isn't the only AI-generated author published by Sports Illustrated, according to a person involved with the creation of the content who asked to be kept anonymous to protect them from professional repercussions.
"There's a lot," they told us of the fake authors. "I was like, what are they? This is ridiculous. This person does not exist."
[...] The AI content marks a staggering fall from grace for Sports Illustrated, which in past decades won numerous National Magazine Awards for its sports journalism and published work by literary giants ranging from William Faulkner to John Updike.
But now that it's under the management of The Arena Group, parts of the magazine seem to have devolved into a Potemkin Village in which phony writers are cooked up out of thin air, outfitted with equally bogus biographies and expertise to win readers' trust, and used to pump out AI-generated buying guides that are monetized by affiliate links to products that provide a financial kickback when readers click them.
What's next? Six-fingered AI-generated models for the swimsuit edition?
Related:
- The AI Hype Bubble is the New Crypto Hype Bubble
- OpenAI Has Released the Largest Version Yet of its Fake-News-Spewing AI
- Inside the Secret List of Websites That Make AI Like ChatGPT Sound Smart
(Score: 5, Interesting) by khallow on Thursday November 30 2023, @01:05PM (15 children)
Glancing at the Wikipedia page [wikipedia.org] for the CEO, Ross Levinsohn, I find that his bio is a trail of destruction [wikipedia.org] with stints at many companies ending in failure and some new suckers hiring him at the next destination. For example, looks like he destroyed value in Alta Vista, Fox, Yahoo, Scout Media, LA Times, and now this. Who hires people like this and for what reasons?
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2023, @01:24PM (1 child)
Many news websites have become unprofitable from video competition and generally not useful because of weird ideologues. If they published these in a print magazine, those are dying too.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday November 30 2023, @01:44PM
Even as a grave digger, Ross Levinsohn seems to bring some problems with him.
(Score: 4, Informative) by ledow on Thursday November 30 2023, @02:19PM (6 children)
You do know how SoylentNews became popular, right?
Slashdot sold out to a series of company, with DICE being the one that tried to monetise Slashdot (and Sourceforge.net I think).
There was a paid-for article about a hoodie or something ridiculous. At that point, everyone started to leave and fell into SoylentNews because it's also based on Slash codebase (but a far more modern version than has ever been used at Slashdot up until that point).
Happens all the time.
(Score: 2) by kreuzfeld on Thursday November 30 2023, @04:13PM (5 children)
I hadn't ever noticed that SoylentNews became *popular*, exactly...
(Score: 5, Touché) by pTamok on Thursday November 30 2023, @06:13PM (4 children)
Only among the discerning elite.
(Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Thursday November 30 2023, @11:13PM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Friday December 01 2023, @09:06AM (2 children)
The first rule of SoylentNews is that we don't talk about the secret handshake!
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday December 01 2023, @05:01PM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Saturday December 09 2023, @08:13AM
Yep.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeRandomGeek on Thursday November 30 2023, @08:15PM (5 children)
Corporate types see a company's brand as one of its biggest assets, sometimes worth billions of dollars. But how do you turn such an asset into actual money? You quietly start selling inferior products and services. For a while, you are able to charge a premium from customers that trust you, until the customers catch on and your brand turns to shit. It happens all the time, and it sucks to be the customer who gets burned.
For me personally, the monetization of Levi's was the worst.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday November 30 2023, @11:07PM
(Score: 3, Informative) by deimtee on Thursday November 30 2023, @11:30PM (3 children)
Yes. As someone who does a fair bit of DYI and knows a few tradies, this is especially prominent in the world of tools. Brands that had a top-notch reputation with my grandfather or father started turning out cheap trash. You could probably draw graphs of declining quality vs time and price vs time and note the lag between them. That gap represents a one-off short term profit at the expense of reputation.
One job constant is that good employers have low turnover, so opportunities to join good employers are relatively rare.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by fliptop on Friday December 01 2023, @02:30AM (2 children)
In the case of brands like Stanley and Delta, that happened when they were bought by Black and Decker. The latter had always been considered a "hobby user" brand and no serious professional would buy their tools b/c they didn't last. Similar thing happened to Craftsman.
Most of my woodshop tools are Delta and were made before it was sold to Rockwell. They're all still running strong and when I have friends over who are also woodworkers they drool over my tools. My daughters, if they decide to sell my tools when I'm gone, should clean up quite nicely.
Whenever I see old tools at the flea market, I buy them, even if I don't need them. Their value will continue to go up.
Stumpy Nubs has a great video [youtube.com] on the topic.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by deimtee on Friday December 01 2023, @12:03PM
Funny you picked that one. Black and Decker was a top brand 70 years ago. My grandfather swore by them. After they trashed their reputation for a few dollars they were still big enough to pick up other smaller brands and do the same to them. Sometime in the next few years I will probably inherit the Black and Decker drill press my dad inherited from granddad. Its still running fine with no wobble or flex at all.
One job constant is that good employers have low turnover, so opportunities to join good employers are relatively rare.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday December 08 2023, @06:44AM