The use of AI has risen rapidly worldwide. People have been using it to write essays or to complete assignments more quickly. From tasks like personal shopping to fully writing articles and papers all the way, AI has been known to make life easier. Although many people believe this is a helpful tool, there is an increase in problems surrounding its use. Artificial Intelligence has eased the workload for many people in various professions. While this may seem like a positive thing in the eyes of many, it can take away the importance of originality in work. People can use AI to create work and then tag their names on it. By doing so, they are claiming work to be their own when it is not. Sports Illustrated has been found doing this in their publication.
Sports Illustrated, a monthly sports magazine was founded in 1954 and was purchased by The Arena Group in 2019. Since the company got into business, they have been very popular among people of all ages. Since the creation of the magazine, they have won an abundance of journalism awards for their widely enjoyed work. Many of us recall flipping through the Sports Illustrated Magazine in class during silent reading because many teachers would order monthly subscriptions. Sports Illustrated is one of those subscriptions where it is very easy to find an article worth reading. They cover various sports and offer at least one topic everyone is interested in. While they are known for covering many segments, there is a recent AI controversy surrounding the publication. This highly looked company is receiving a lot of attention for the suspicion of AI use in their work.
Sports Illustrated was caught on Monday, November 27th of using AI in the publication. It was learned that the authors creating their work were not real people. It was found that the names of their “authors” were made up and attached to photos that were AI-generated. It may come to mind how someone could claim that these weren’t real people; however, images of their authors were seen on an AI photo generator sale website. The people were also not found to exist outside of Sports Illustrated’s work. Sports Illustrated was using exact images that were on other websites and the names of the authors were nowhere to be found outside of the site. They made up names and labeled them to the AI-generated faces.
It was also found that Sports Illustrated used AI in their articles and the content of their work. This was first proclaimed by the Futurism website. Sports Illustrated responded by saying the suspected AI articles were created by AdVon Commerce which was a third-party company. It was later learned that AdVon had their reporters use a fake pen name. In response to this, Sports Illustrated said those were “actions we don’t condone.” The publisher of Sports Illustrated (The Arena Group) later fired its CEO Ross Levinsohn after receiving the accusations. They currently have Manoj Bhargava as interim chief executive officer.
Sports Illustrated reacted to these claims by denying the allegations. They tried to hide the fact their authors were not real. Even though Sports Illustrated denied using artificial intelligence in their work, they immediately removed the AI-generated authors from their website and cleared away the articles that were accused of using AI. On their website currently, there is no trace of alleged AI-generated work.
Overall, journalists are always trying to seek out the truth and be truthful to their audiences. Sports Illustrated has violated journalism ethics and has put a dent in its credibility/reputation. People may no longer view Sports Illustrated as a trustworthy source because of their dishonesty.
