One of the most well-known publications on the planet is pushing back after allegations arose that its website hosted articles that were generated through artificial intelligence and credited to nonexistent writers.
Sports Illustrated, once a titan of the sports journalism industry, is the latest high-profile publication to face accusations of using software to write news articles.
The allegations were first published on Monday by Futurism.com, a technology and culture website that has been covering the rise of AI-generated content exhaustively.
The website found several articles on SI.com which, in addition to having poor grammar and clunky sentences, appeared to be written by authors whose bios were vague and who had no other online presence beyond their website bios.
Even the photos of the purported writers were apparently AI-generated, with one headshot of an “author” being available for purchase online under the tag “neutral white young-adult male with short brown hair and blue eyes.”
Citing inside sources that claimed to have direct involvement with the system, Futurism was told there were “a lot” of fake authors and many articles that appeared to be written by AI.
The Arena Group, which operates Sports Illustrated, was reached for comment by the publication. Maggie Harrison, who reported the piece for Futurism, said the articles and bios were taken down immediately after with no explanation given and no comment provided.
However similar websites operated by Arena appear to still have these fake author pages active, including TheStreet, a financial and business news website.
Following the publication of Futurism’s report, Arena released a statement on X, formerly Twitter, laying the blame on a third-party vendor that distributes licensed content on its websites, which it identified as AdVon Commerce.
Arena says it has conducted a review of the content and determined that the stories were not AI-generated, and the authors were real, albeit writing under pen names.
“AdVon has assured us that all of the articles in question were written and edited by humans,” the statement reads. “According to AdVon, their writers, editors, and researchers create and curate content and follow a policy that involves using both counter-plagiarism and counter-AI software on all content.”
The statement goes on to say that AdVon writers used fake names to “protect author privacy,” a practice that Arena said it “strongly condemns” on its platform.
Apparently expecting Arena to deny the claims, a source that spoke to Futurism pushed back, asserting that the company’s word could not be trusted.
“The content is absolutely AI-generated,” the anonymous source told Futurism, “no matter how much they say that it’s not.”
While Sports Illustrated has adopted a more contractor- and blogger-focused business model, the company still employs many esteemed sports writers and journalists who are represented by a workers union.
A statement published by the SI Union said members were “horrified” by the Futurism report, demanding that its parent company “commit to basic journalistic standards, including not publishing computer-written stories by fake people.”
Earlier this year, Microsoft came under fire for a similar instance of an article on MSN.com that was seemingly written by artificial intelligence. That article, an obituary for former NBA player Brandon Hunter, included language that described him as “useless at 42,” and having “performed in 67 video games over two seasons.”
When reached for comment regarding the posting of Hunter’s obituary, a Microsoft spokesperson released a statement in which they said the company was continually working to ensure its systems don’t publish inaccurate information. They did not confirm or deny if the obituary was written by artificial intelligence.
Futurism was among the first to report on that story as well.
Conveniently, Arena stated that the company was already reviewing its relationship with AdVon when the AI allegations were raised. The two sides have since parted ways, Sports Illustrated says.
