Sports Illustrated Blames Third Party For Content By Fake Authors Appearing On Site

Monday, the website Futurism reported that Sports Illustrated has been publishing articles using artificial intelligence (AI).

The report concluded the site is using AI-generated content -- and authors.

Specifically, the outlet focused on a writer named "Drew Ortiz" who, by all accounts, does not exist anywhere on the internet other than on the SI articles on which his byline appeared.

Ortiz's profile photo is for sale on a website that sells AI-generated headshots, where he's described as a "neutral white young-adult male with short brown hair and blue eyes."

And yet, Ortiz's page included a bio that described him as a real person with a detailed life:

Sometime in the summer, Ortiz disappeared from Sports Illustrated's site entirely. His profile page started to redirect users to that of a "Sora Tanaka."

However, like Ortiz, there was no trace of Tanaka anywhere else on the internet.

"Tanaka didn't last, either. Eventually, she also disappeared, replaced by yet another profile that carried no headshot at all, which Sports Illustrated deleted along with the other AI-generated content after we reached out," said the report.

Tanaka's profile picture is also for sale on the same AI headshot marketplace as Ortiz, on which she's listed as a "joyful asian young-adult female with long brown hair and brown eyes."

The report cites a "person involved with the creation of the content" who claims both Tanaka and Ortiz were, in fact, AI-created.

"There's a lot" more fake accounts, alleged the source.

Futurism says it contacted SI, which in return, "deleted everything."

The report added the following:

The AI authors' writing often sounds like it was written by an alien; one Ortiz article, for instance, warns that volleyball "can be a little tricky to get into, especially without an actual ball to practice with."

According to a second person involved in the creation of the Sports Illustrated content who also asked to be kept anonymous, that's because it's not just the authors' headshots that are AI-generated. At least some of the articles themselves, they said, were churned out using AI as well.

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

The Sports Illustrated Union released a statement demanding answers following the report:

So, what are the answers?

Sports Illustrated addressed the report late Monday, denying the allegations:

"Today, an article was published alleging that Sports Illustrated published AI-generated articles. According to our initial investigation, this is not accurate.

"The articles in question were product reviews and were licensed content from an external, third-party company, AdVon Commerce. A number of AdVon’s e-commerce articles ran on certain Arena websites. We continually monitor our partners and were in the midst of a review when these allegations were raised.

"AdVon has assured us that all of the articles in question were written and edited by humans. 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. However, we have learned that AdVon had writers use a pen or pseudo name in certain articles to protect author privacy – actions we don’t condone – and we are removing the content while our internal investigation continues and have since ended the partnership."

SI's response mirrors the statement Gannett released last month when a report claimed USA Today had published content using artificial intelligence. Gannett blamed the use of fake authors on "a deal with a marketing firm to generate paid search-engine traffic.”

Alas, either they are lying or there are some real ominous marketing deals further damaging the reputation of American journalism.

Futurism has yet to respond to Sports Illustrated's rebuttal.

We will update this story as it develops.