Chicago Sun-Times accused of using AI to create reading list of books that don't exist

The Guardian

20-05-2025

Illinois' prominent Chicago Sun-Times newspaper has been accused of using artificial intelligence (AI) to create and publish a summer reading list that includes several recommendations for books that don't exist.
Social media posts began to circulate on Tuesday criticizing the paper for allegedly using the AI software ChatGPT to generate an article with book recommendations for the upcoming summer season called 'Summer reading list for 2025'. As such chatbots are known to make up information, a phenomenon often referred to as 'AI hallucination', the article contains several fake titles attached to real authors.
'I went into my library's database of Chicago area newspapers to confirm this isn't fake, and it's not,' a post on Bluesky by Book Riot editor Kelly Jensen says. 'Why the hell are you using ChatGPT to make up book titles? You used to have a books staff. Absolutely no fact checking?'
As early Tuesday afternoon, the post had more than 1,000 likes and nearly 500 reposts.
Among the fake book titles are Hurricane Season by Brit Bennett, Nightshade Market by Min Jin Lee, The Longest Day by Rumaan Alam, Boiling Point by Rebecca Makkai, Migrations by Maggie O'Farrell and The Rainmakers by Percival Everett. All of those authors listed are real acclaimed novelists – but the books attached to them are not genuine titles that they published.
Additionally, the article includes descriptions for each of the phoney books as well as reasons why readers may enjoy them.
The article does include a few real titles, such as Atonement by Ian McEwan.
Others on social media have pointed out that the use of AI appears to be found throughout the pages of the Chicago Sun-Times summer 2025 section. Screenshots of an article called 'Summer food trends' shows the piece quotes a purported Cornell University food anthropologist named Catherine Furst. But there appears to be no one by that name at Cornell.
In another article about ideas to spruce up one's back yard, it quotes a purported FirepitBase.com editor named Daniel Ray. No such website seems to exist.
On Tuesday morning, the official account for the Chicago Sun-Times on Bluesky addressed the controversy. 'We are looking into how this made it into print as we speak,' the account wrote. 'It is not editorial content and was not created by, or approved by, the Sun-Times newsroom. We value your trust in our reporting and take this very seriously. More info will be provided soon.'
The AI-generated stories also appear to have been syndicated outside Chicago. A post on Threads by AngelaReadsBooks accused the Philadelphia Inquirer of publishing the same fake reading list.
'At a time when libraries and library budgets are being threatened every day, this is a slap in the face to anyone in the profession,' the post reads. 'Where is the journalistic integrity???'
Popular author Jasmine Guillory reacted to a post about the fake novels, writing on Threads: 'Holy shit. Just imaginary books and they printed it.'
The Chicago Sun-Times, resulting from a 1948 merger, has long held the second largest circulation among newspapers in the Windy City. It trails only the Chicago Tribune.
It was not immediately clear whether any other local newspapers circulated the AI articles.
The rise of AI content is an ongoing issue with which newsrooms have had to grapple. Certain papers have openly utilized the technology and even put out job postings for 'AI-assisted' reporters.