An investigation into AdVon, the company behind Sports Illustrated's fake writers, finds its AI content and fake authors at the LA Times, Miami Herald, and more
Futurism Maggie Harrison
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- Multiple leading publications including Sports Illustrated, USA Today, and Outside Magazine have been paying an AI content farm to write low-quality fake articles from fake humans. — Great reporting by Maggie Harrison Dupré writing for Futurism — via @taylorlorenz — https://futurism.com/... @natematias@social.coop
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Discussion
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@jvagle@mastodon.lawprofs.org
Jeffrey Vagle
on mastodon
There's a lesson on human nature in this story. — https://futurism.com/... [image]
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@jtlg@mastodon.lawprofs.org
James Grimmelmann
on mastodon
Meet AdVon, the AI-Powered Content Monster Infecting the Media Industry — https://futurism.com/... “Basically, AdVon engages in what Google calls “site reputation abuse”: it strikes deals with publishers in which it provides huge numbers of extremely low-quality product review…
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@taylorlorenz@mastodon.social
Taylor Lorenz
on mastodon
“We found the company's phony authors and their work everywhere from celebrity gossip outlets like Hollywood Life and Us Weekly to venerable newspapers like the Los Angeles Times.” https://futurism.com/...
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@gaufre
@gaufre
on x
The AdVon scandal follows a long trend of news companies lacking innovation and creating unusable websites, putting clicks and bad ads over readability and usability.
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@weareyourfek
Foster Kamer
on x
One of my favorite parts of @mags_h11's AdVon story: When AdVon CEO Ben Faw tried to intimidate us into backing down, by stressing his business connections to our owners, our CEO, and the chairman of Recurrent's board. https://futurism.com/... [image]
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@newsguild
@newsguild
on x
A @futurism investigation into AdVon, the company behind AI content at SI & Gannett papers, exposes how many publishers cannot be trusted to safeguard the integrity of news This why journalists are fighting to protect their readers from the dangers of AI https://futurism.com/...
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@mags_h11
Maggie Harrison Dupré
on x
Earlier in our reporting, AdVon denied using AI to generate editorial content. But according to insiders we spoke to, this wasn't true — and in fact, AdVon materials we obtained revealed that the company has its own designated AI text generator. That AI has a name: MEL.
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@willyblackmore
Willy Blackmore
on x
“We found the company's phony authors and their work everywhere from celebrity gossip outlets like Hollywood Life and Us Weekly to venerable newspapers like the Los Angeles Times...which also told us that it had broken off its relationship with AdVon” https://futurism.com/...
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@shwinyo
Ashwin Rodrigues
on x
any time a media company says they're investing in AI as a core pillar of their content strategy, they should have to explain how it's different than this https://futurism.com/...
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@mags_h11
Maggie Harrison Dupré
on x
We found AdVon's fake authors at the LA Times, Us Weekly, and HollywoodLife, to name a few. AdVon's fake author network was particularly extensive at the McClatchy media network, where we found at least 14 fake authors at more than 20 of its papers, including the Miami Herald.
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@caleweissman
Cale G Weissman
on x
futurism's reporting on AI-generated content at scale has been great and eye-opening. it turns out pubs like the LA Times and Miami Herald have been using it, and say they weren't told the stories were written by AI. wild stuff!! https://futurism.com/...
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@weareyourfek
Foster Kamer
on x
Today, on Futurism, a massive exposé everyone in media should be paying attention to: The story behind AdVon, the machine behind the fentanyl-like poisoning of AI-generated content in major publishers' work. https://futurism.com/...
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@nxthompson
@nxthompson
on x
Omg. The invasion of fake AI authors has reached a new stage. https://futurism.com/... [image]
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@knibbs
@knibbs
on x
fake AI-generated writers are a scourge on the media. this futurism report by @mags_h11 is wild https://futurism.com/... [image]
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@mattzollerseitz
@mattzollerseitz
on x
Truly revolting how AI is allowed to corrupt journalism, courtesy of owners looking to squeeze more blood from the stone. incredible reporting here on the use of tech to create fake writers with fake bylines & head shots. https://futurism.com/...
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@pkafka
Peter Kafka
on x
Great story about a shitty company. Futurism does a really good job on this beat.
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@taylorlorenz
@taylorlorenz
on x
“We found the company's phony authors and their work everywhere from celebrity gossip outlets like Hollywood Life and Us Weekly to venerable newspapers like the Los Angeles Times.” https://futurism.com/...
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@mags_h11
Maggie Harrison Dupré
on x
I kept digging into that AI company behind Sports Illustrated's fake writers. Turns out it's created tons more fake writers across the web, sometimes for surprisingly huge media clients. And then things get even wilder... For @futurism // https://futurism.com/... [image]