The Sunday Journal of Chicago Sun-Totes included a special unionized section produced by a third-party company which included a summer reading list.
The only problem – many books on this list do not exist.
The titles – and the summaries of the book – were imagined by artificial intelligence.
The author said on Tuesday that he had used AI to help his research for the recommendations of the book and other stories written for the 64 -page section, entitled “Heat Index: Your Guide for the best of summer”. But the independent writer based in Chicago, Marco Buscaglia, said that he had not managed to verify what he had gleaned using AI, which led to a disinformation that ended up in Sun-Totes and at least another big newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Buscaglia said that he was working for King Features Syndicate, a Hearst unit, to produce content sold to media customers across the country, and he wanted to assume full responsibility for what happened, which exhibited Sun-Totes and Philadelphia Inquirer at a widespread public mockery.
“Disputed, and 100% on me, I have somehow republished this list that (an AI program) spits,” said Buscaglia, a long -standing journalist. “Usually, that’s something I don’t do.”
“I mean, even if I don’t write something, I at least make sure to propose it correctly and check it and make sure that everything is legitimate. And I definitely failed in this task.”
Buscaglia said that he and others were trying to determine the full extent of the errors that made the special section. But he admitted having used AI for other stories in addition to the list of books and could not guarantee that he had completely verified these articles either, saying: “At this stage, I expected anything.”
Hearst did not respond to requests for comments.
In a statement on Tuesday evening, King Features said they “would end our relationship” with Buscaglia, alleging that its use of AI had violated a “strict policy” and that it had not revealed to do so as part of “history development”.
“We regret this incident and work with the handful of publication partners who have acquired this supplement,” said a spokesperson for King’s features.
A summer reading list that appeared in a special Sun-Total syndicated section included a disinformation generated by AI.
The CEO of Chicago Public Media, Melissa Bell, said on Tuesday that she was “deeply disappointed that this story distracted from the incredible journalism that takes place every day in our organization”. Chicago’s non-profit public media have the Sun-Totes station and WBez public radio station.
Bell said in a press release that the reading list of the Special Summer Section “recommended books that do not exist” and that the public media of Chicago “actively investigated” other content in the section.
“It is unacceptable that this content is inaccurate, and it is just as unacceptable as we did not specify for readers that the section was produced outside the Sun-Totes editorial room,” said Bell.
She said that Sun-Totes’ printed subscribers would not be billed for the publishing, which has been deleted from the E-PAPER version and replaced by a letter to Bell readers. She said that the organization “examined our relations with this national content partner to ensure that errors of this nature no longer occur”.
Bell promised to quickly share more details on the incident.
The Vice-President of the Public Media of Chicago, Victor Lim, Victor Lim, refused to say if the organization would examine the other content of the King or Buscaglia features in addition to the special section.
A spokesperson for Philadelphia Inquirer said that he also published a 56-page summer supplement from King Features last Thursday, and the section included “the equipment generated by the AI which is apparently made, pure and simple false or misleading”.
“The use of artificial intelligence to produce content, as has apparently been the case with part of the material of the heat index, is a violation of our own internal policies and a serious violation,” the Inquirer said in a statement.
Earlier Tuesday, Buscaglia said he had produced all the content in the section. He said that if he had been dismissed, he would accept the decision saying, “Whatever happens, this is something I deserve.”
Buscaglia added that he regrets how other journalists for Sun-Totes and other media engaged in vast reporting processes, verification of facts and publishing were “captured of bursts” because of his actions with AI.
The union representing Sun-Totes journalists has published a declaration calling for the management of public media in Chicago “to do everything he can to prevent the rehearsal of this disaster” and that readers expect reports and the verification of facts by journalists.
“It was a unionized section produced outside without the knowledge of the members of our editorial room,” said Sun-Totes Guild. “We are deeply disturbed that the content generated by AI is printed alongside our work.”
The journalists’ union said that its members “go to large numbers to strengthen confidence with our sources and communities and are horrified by this syndication of the slope”.
This story has been reported, written and published by members of the editorial staff of the Chicago public media. As part of the CPM protocol, no business official or external CPM leader in the editorial hall examined this story before its publicly publication.
Dan Mihalopoulos is a investigation journalist for Wbez.
