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Sports Illustrated has been busted using AI-generated journalists to 'write' AI-generated articles, and then freaked out and deleted the evidence after one of their webdevs dropped the dime on them.

According to an in-depth investigative report by Futurism;

It wasn't just 'Drew Ortiz' either… The outlet used multiple AI-generated 'journalists,' according to a person involved in the creation of the content who asked to remain anonymous.

"There's a lot," said the source. "I was like, what are they? This is ridiculous. This person does not exist."

"At the bottom [of the page] there would be a photo of a person and some fake description of them like, 'oh, John lives in Houston, Texas. He loves yard games and hanging out with his dog, Sam.' Stuff like that," the said, adding "It's just crazy."

'Alien' AI writing

A second whistleblower involved in the creation of the AI content told Futurism that it's not just the headshots – entire articles were churned out using AI as well.

In one instance of Ortiz's writing described by Futurism as 'alien,' the article warns that volleyball "can be a little tricky to get into, especially without an actual ball to practice with."

What?

"The content is absolutely AI-generated," said the second source, adding "no matter how much they say that it's not."

After Futurism reached out to Sports Illustrated publisher, The Arena Group, all of the AI authors mysteriously disappeared.

Damage control

Arena, after initially ghosting Futurism's inquiries, blamed a 3rd party contractor.

As Futurism notes, however, "It sounds like The Arena Group's investigation pretty much just involved asking AdVon whether the content was AI-generated, and taking them at their word when they said it wasn't. Our sources familiar with the creation of the content disagree."

Hilariously, after Sports Illustrated scrubbed 'Drew Ortiz' from the site entirely, his profile picture redirected to another AI generated bio – of one "Sora Tanaka."

There's no evidence of Sora outside this profile, but 'her' picture is for sale on the same AI headshot marketplace as Ortiz!

Tanaka too eventually disappeared, replaced by another profile with no headshot at all – which was then deleted too.

Other Arena Group outlets doing it too?

The rabbit hole goes even deeper, according to Futurism, which also reports that similar AI-generated authors and articles have been found on The Street.

Read the rest here…

Meanwhile, shares of Arena plunged 21% on Tuesday.