An article published on Futurism on Monday alleges Sports Illustrated used artificial intelligence to generate sports articles.
According to Futurism, AI was used to generate the articles’ text as well as reporter headshots and biographical information.
Sports Illustrated has published content from several such AI-generated authors, according to a person “involved with the creation of the content,” who requested anonymity.
Sports Illustrated responds to accusations
The Sports Illustrated Union said in a statement on X that it was “horrified” by the reporting and demanded an explanation from The Arena Group.
“If true, these practices violate everything we believe in about journalism,” the union wrote. “We deplore being associated with something so disrespectful to our readers.”
A representative for The Arena Group also told Scripps News on Monday that the allegations in Futurism’s article were false.
“The articles in question were product reviews and were licensed content from an external, third-party company, AdVon Commerce,” The Arena Group said in a statement. “AdVon has assured us that all of the articles in question were written and edited by humans.”
The Arena Group has since ended its partnership with AdVon and removed the disputed articles while it investigates the situation.