CEO breaks silence after Chicago Sun-Times shares AI-generated list of fake books: 'Unacceptable'

Hindustan Times

21-05-2025

The CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times issued a clarification after the newspaper published a reading list over the weekend that was partially generated by artificial intelligence and featured made-up books by famous authors.
The list, which was part of their 'Best of Summer' summer reading section, contained only five titles out of a total of fifteen, which were actual books; the rest were dreamed up by AI. The summer book guide featured a made-up book titled Tidewater Dreams by Chilean-American novelist Isabel Allende, calling it the author's "first climate fiction novel." It also listed The Rainmakers, a book supposedly written by 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner Percival Everett.
The list triggered outrage from Chicago Sun-Times subscribers who were shocked to see the fake book list printed prominently on the newspaper, without any verification by the editorial department. "Really incredible that a prominent paper in the third-largest city in the United States is shamelessly reprinting AI slop instead of asking a staffer to recommend a few books," said one Reddit user.
Another angry user took to X and wrote, "A news outlet not checking their sources or their facts. And you question why no one takes you seriously."
Others called out the increasing dependency on AI, even in newsrooms. "This is the inevitable outcome of decades of either eradicating local copy desks or consolidating them into national "hubs," then assuming AI can pick up the slack," said one of them.
Chicago Public Media CEO Melissa Bell clarified on behalf of the newspaper. She explained that the list was generated by King Features, a content partner who employed a freelancer to create it.
"It was inserted into our paper without review from our editorial team, and we presented the section without any acknowledgement that it was from a third-party organization. This should be a learning moment for all journalism organizations: Our work is valued — and valuable — because of the humanity behind it. It is unacceptable that this content was inaccurate, and it is equally unacceptable that we did not make it clear to readers that the section was produced outside the Sun-Times newsroom," she said, in a statement.
She added that the newspaper is working on improving its content policies and will not charge subscribers for the edition. King Features stated that it had terminated its relationship with the freelancer who created the list using AI without disclosing it.
Even though the list appeared without a byline, writer Marco Buscaglia claimed responsibility for it. In an email to NPR, he said, "Huge mistake on my part and has nothing to do with the Sun-Times. They trust that the content they purchase is accurate and I betrayed that trust. It's on me 100 per cent."