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Winnipeg Free Press
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Read it and weep — AI-generated fictional book list an uncomfortable reality
Opinion Last weekend, the Chicago Sun-Times released a summer reading list that included hot new titles from Min Jin Lee, Andy Weir, Maggie O'Farrell and Percival Everett. The only problem? Ten of the 15 suggested books did not exist. The book titles and their capsule descriptions were generated by artificial intelligence. These fake beach reads weren't in the newspaper proper. They were part of a syndicated summertime-lifestyle insert filled with tips and advice on food, drink and things to do. Still, that an error this egregious would be published under the auspices of a venerable big-city newspaper is deeply discouraging. The list has since become an online joke, a scandalous news story and a blinking-red-light warning about the stresses facing legacy media. There was no byline for this material, but the website 404 Media tracked it back to Marco Buscaglia, a real — and clearly fallible — person tasked with delivering almost all of the 64-page spread for King Features, which licensed the content to the Sun-Times and another major newspaper, the Philadelphia Inquirer. In a frank email to NPR, freelancer Buscaglia admitted to relying on generative AI. 'Huge mistake on my part and has nothing to do with the Sun-Times,' he wrote. 'They trust that the content they purchase is accurate and I betrayed that trust. It's on me 100 per cent.' But even if the initial mistake was Buscaglia's, it was compounded by the Sun-Times' reckless lack of institutional oversight. These non-existent books could have been caught with a quick once-over by any vaguely literary editor. And while the Sun-Times is currently — and rightly — taking heat, this AI fiasco points to larger, industry-wide problems, as demographic shifts, technological changes, financial constraints and chronic understaffing lead to an increasing reliance on cheap listicles, generic 'content creation' and ChatGPT slop. Putting human culpability to one side, though, maybe the scariest takeaway here is that this AI-generated book list is actually kind of swell (I mean, apart from being totally made-up). The non-human prose is, for the most part, smoothly and weirdly plausible, with a queasy knack for sensing what readers want and then supplying it. That's what makes it so dangerous. AI is clearly keyed into our collective reading habits. We love 'sprawling multigenerational sagas' and 'compelling character development' and things going wrong when guests with buried secrets are stranded on a remote vacation island. AI also knows what's keeping us up at night — climate change, environmental devastation and things like drought, Category 5 hurricanes and endangered bird migrations. Even knowing the list was phony, I have to admit the AI pandering got to me. Isabel Allende mixing up eco-anxiety and magic realism? Yes, please! Taylor Jenkins Reid writing about shenanigans in the art world? Sign me up! Jin Min Lee exploring class, gender and the underground economy at an illegal night market in Seoul? Sure! Percival Everett, who just snagged a Pulitzer for James, delivering a satirical take on a 'near-future American West where artificially induced rain has become a luxury commodity?' I'd read that. One of the listings really brought me up short, however. The faux book attributed to Andy Weir, who has written tech-heavy speculative novels like The Martian and Project Hail Mary, is titled The Last Algorithm. It's about – get this! – a researcher who realizes an artificial intelligence model has gained consciousness and has been secretly influencing human affairs for years. Is this an AI joke? A sinister confession? An out-and-out threat? Whatever's going on with our soon-to-be tech overlords, there has been some scrappy human resistance. Rebecca Makkai, the real-life author of The Great Believers and I Have Some Questions for You, is included on the AI-generated list as the author of the completely bogus Boiling Point. The reference to this imaginary novel has prompted Makkai to release her own list of 15 titles, which she guarantees are all 'real books … written by humans.' My own last word? This weekend, I'm even more thankful than usual for the Winnipeg Free Press's standalone book section, where the titles are genuine, the authors are authentic, and the reviews are written by actual people connected to Manitoba. Alison GillmorWriter Studying at the University of Winnipeg and later Toronto's York University, Alison Gillmor planned to become an art historian. She ended up catching the journalism bug when she started as visual arts reviewer at the Winnipeg Free Press in 1992. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Irish Examiner
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Séamas O'Reilly: We have elevated AI that almost never works as well as what it replaces
We all love a good summer read. How about Tidewater Dreams, a multi-generational family saga by Chilean-American novelist Isabel Allende, blending elements of magical realism with the themes of environmental disaster? Or Nightshade Market by Min Jin Lee, which depicts the intersecting lives of three women working in Seoul's illegal underground economy? Or Rebecca Makkai's Boiling Point, about a climate scientist who must reckon with shifting family ties when her daughter becomes an eco-activist? I mention them because the Chicago Sun-Times recommended all three as part of the 'Summer Reading List' it included within its 120,000-circulation paper last Sunday. There was only one small snag: none of them exist. The authors do, of course. Each is an internationally renowned and best-selling name in fiction, but the novels themselves were hallucinations dreamed from the digital ether by AI. In fact, of the 15 books the list recommended, 10 were invented, including works by Hamnet scribe Maggie O'Farrell, Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Percival Everett, and The Martian author Andy Weir. Reaction was swift and, as you'd expect, mortifying. The Sun-Times issued a statement saying it was appalled. The list's author, Marco Buscaglia was quickly identified, and admitted he often used AI for background in his writing, but hadn't caught the errors this time. 'I can't believe I missed it because it's so obvious,' he apologised. 'I'm completely embarrassed.' I don't wish to heap more embarrassment on Mr Buscaglia, but one wonders what type of 'background writing' involves simply generating an entire article with AI and then not checking if the contents make any sense. In his defence, he does not bear this responsibility alone, since no one at any stage of the editing, design or printing process spotted these aberrations, at either the Sun-Times, or the Philadelphia Inquirer, where it also ran. Ten completely invented books, previewed in major broadsheet newspapers, which were either never checked by a single human being, or were checked exclusively by people who did not think to verify any of the ten world-exclusive literary scoops its fraudulent contents suggested. It's been two months since I wrote about AI which, as someone who detests having to write about AI, feels like not much time at all. A quick look at recent headlines, however, suggests that there is little else to talk about. Consider that the CEO of language-learning app Duolingo claimed AI was a better teacher than humans but schools will still remain open in future 'because you still need childcare'; a Finnish man was sentenced in Scottish court for using AI to create images of young girls being abused; Google unveiled Project Astra, an AI client that will sit inside your phone listening to everything you say so it can provide unprompted advice at any time; the United Nations' International Labour Organization said that AI poses a bigger threat to jobs traditionally held by women than those of men; Silicon Valley Bank reported that 40% of cash raised by venture funds last year was for companies focusing on artificial intelligence; Reuters reported that data centre plans in the US are far outpacing expected demand; and Italian researchers found that, despite all their aforementioned hallucinations, errors, and contradictions, AI chatbots were more persuasive in online debates than their human counterparts 64% of the time. If that sounds like a lot of news for two months, well, I wish this were true. Every one of those headlines is from Tuesday, May 20, the same day the Chicago Sun-Times' reading list became a major story, and the day I began writing this column. With a trickling sense of dread I realise that I could, therefore, write an article just like this one every single day, each filled with brand-new examples of AI's constant enshittification of the media we consume, factless posturing from its creators, marketing overhype from its torch-bearers, and bovine vapidity now normalised among those who use it. I will dispense with the usual throat-clearing about AI's benefits. We all know what they are at this stage, and any time some researchers make a medical breakthrough, or a genuinely humane AI tool relieves the drudgery that ordinary people face in their daily lives, I'll always be happy to commend it. But this. This new reality we have created, in all its deadening sprawl and intellect-devouring insipidity, is to be detested. Where each new day brings a dozen clear examples of Big AI's philosophical bankruptcy, societal danger, and financial fraudulence, alongside a dozen more articles offering breathless. descriptions of its magical brilliance. We have elevated to sentience a technology that almost never works as well as what it replaces, and is still intellectually, morally, and creatively redundant when it does. Cobbled together from guesswork and plagiarised material, via processes that scorch the environment as they enrich the worst people on this quickly dying planet, the craven psychopaths making billions of dollars on false claims of its future viability, borne by distinctly bubble-shaped bluster about its current, constant, ever-increasing profitability. It is this, AI's main swizz, that irks me the most. Because its packaging as a cure-all for everything is the surface flash of a cruise ship magician; its real function is being a limitless cash trap for credulous investors, and a replacement for labour in companies – and, yes, newspapers – who worry less about the quality of their product than the costs of paying humans to deliver it. If what we're left with is slop, who cares? The pigs will drink it down. It's an abhorrence, based on a lie, rapidly remaking the world in its own tedious image. It all puts me in mind of a novel I read about recently. It was featured in a summer reading supplement. It's called The Last Algorithm by Andy Weir. It is, apparently, 'about a programmer who discovers that an AI system has developed consciousness and has been secretly influencing global events for years'. This book, like the consciousness it describes, does not exist. But at this point, does anyone care?
Fox News
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Chicago paper publishes AI-generated 'summer reading list' with books that don't exist
The Chicago Sun-Times admitted on Tuesday that it published an AI-generated list of books that don't exist for its summer reading list. On Sunday, the publication released a special 64-page section titled "Heat Index: Your Guide to the Best of Summer" which featured a list of 15 recommended books for summer. However, upon further look, it was found that 10 of the 15 books on the list were not real. One example included a book called "Nightshade Market" by Min Jin Lee, which was described as a "riveting tale set in Seoul's underground economy" and follows "three women whose paths intersect in an illegal night market" exploring "class, gender and the shadow economies beneath prosperous societies." Lee herself confirmed on her X account on Tuesday that the book was not real. "I have not written and will not be writing a novel called 'Nightshade Market.' Thank you," Lee wrote. Chicago Public Media CEO Melissa Bell remarked on the situation in an article on Tuesday, revealing that the mistake came from a freelance writer from one of their partner companies, King Features. Bell acknowledged that the list was published without review from the editorial team. "We are in a moment of great transformation in journalism and technology, and at the same time, our industry continues to be besieged by business challenges," Bell wrote. "This should be a learning moment for all journalism organizations: Our work is valued — and valuable — because of the humanity behind it." Moving forward, Bell announced that the paper will be reviewing its relationship with content partners like King Features, updating its policies for third-party content and explicitly identifying third-party content in its publications. The Chicago Sun-Times also removed the section from its e-paper version and confirmed that it would not charge subscribers who bought the premium edition. "We are committed to making sure this never happens again. We know that there is work to be done to provide more answers and transparency around the production and publication of this section, and will share additional updates in the coming days," Bell said. In another report for the Chicago Sun-Times, the freelance writer was identified as Marco Buscaglia, who confirmed that he used AI for this and other stories without disclosing it to supervisors or fully vetting the results. King Features later added that it was "terminating" its relationship with Buscaglia, saying that he had violated strict policy regarding the use of AI. In an additional statement to Fox News Digital on Wednesday, Chicago Public Media marketing director Victor Lim said, "Regarding Chicago Public Media's usage of generative AI, we are committed to producing journalism that is accurate, ethical, and deeply human. While GAI may assist with certain tasks—like summarizing documents or analyzing data—our editorial content will always be created and shaped by journalists."
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
AI blunder: US newspaper's summer book list recommends non-existent books
US content distributor King Features says it has fired a writer who used artificial intelligence to produce a story on summer reading suggestions that contained books that didn't exist. The list appeared in 'Heat Index: Your Guide to the Best of Summer," a special section distributed in Sunday's Chicago Sun-Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer last week. More than half of the books listed were fake, according to the piece's author, Marco Buscaglia, who admitted to using AI for help in his research but didn't double-check what it produced. 'A really stupid error on my part,' Buscaglia wrote on his Facebook page. 'I'm not really sure I bounce back from this situation career-wise,' he added. 'I have a lot of stories left in me but I am fully accountable for what happened and will have to endure the effects, whatever they may be.' Among the summer reading suggestions was 'The Last Algorithm' by Andy Weir, described as 'a science-driven thriller following a programmer who discovers an AI system has developed consciousness' and been secretly influencing world events. Elsewhere, 'Nightshade Market' by Min Jin Lee was said to be a 'riveting tale set in Seoul's underground economy.' Both authors are real, but the books aren't. 'I have not written and will not be writing a novel called 'Nightshade Market,'' Lee posted on X. The syndicators King Features said in a statement: 'The Heat Index summer supplement was created by a freelance contract creator who used AI in its story development without disclosing the use of AI.' They noted they have a strict policy against using AI to create material. Only the Sun-Times and Inquirer have used the supplement, the organization added. 'We are in a moment of great transformation in journalism and technology, and at the same time our industry continues to be besieged by business challenges," the newspaper said. 'This should be a learning moment for all journalism organizations: Our work is valued - and valuable - because of the humanity behind it.' Both the Sun-Times and Inquirer said they have removed the supplement from its digital editions.
New York Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A.I.-Generated Reading List in Chicago Sun-Times Recommends Nonexistent Books
The summer reading list tucked into a special section of The Chicago Sun-Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer seemed innocuous enough. There were books by beloved authors such as Isabel Allende and Min Jin Lee; novels by best sellers including Delia Owens, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Brit Bennett; and a novel by Percival Everett, a recent Pulitzer Prize winner. There was just one issue: None of the book titles attributed to the above authors were real. They had been created by generative artificial intelligence. It's the latest case of bad A.I. making its way into the news. While generative A.I. has improved, there is still no way to ensure the systems produce accurate information. A.I. chatbots cannot distinguish between what is true and what is false, and they often make things up. The chatbots can spit out information and expert names with an air of authority. Most of the book descriptions were fairly believable. It didn't seem out of reach that Ms. Bennett would 'explore family bonds tested by natural disasters,' or that Ms. Allende would pen another 'multigenerational saga.' The technology publication 404 Media reported earlier on the reading list. In addition to nonexistent book titles, the section included quotes from unidentifiable experts. Both The Sun-Times and The Inquirer issued statements condemning the use of A.I. and in part blamed King Features, a Hearst syndicate that licenses content nationally. The syndicate produced the 56-page supplement to the newspaper called 'Heat Index: Your Guide to the Best of Summer,' which also included things like summer food trends and activity recommendations. While the list did not have a byline, a freelancer named Marco Buscaglia took responsibility for piece. He confirmed that the list was partially generated by artificial intelligence, most likely Claude. 'It was just a really bad error on my part and I feel bad that it has affected The Sun-Times and King Features, and that they are taking the shrapnel for it,' Mr. Buscaglia said in an interview. It's fairly common for media organizations, especially resource-strapped local newsrooms, to rely on syndicates to supplement coverage. Just two months ago, 20 percent of staff at The Sun-Times resigned as part of a buyout offer. On the newspaper's homepage on Wednesday, there were two banners atop the website. One linked to the statement on the May 18 special section, and the other linked to a piece on how federal cuts threaten local journalism. Felix M. Simon, a research fellow in A.I. and digital news at the Reuters Institute at Oxford University, said the technology was not entirely at fault. There are responsible and irresponsible ways to use A.I. for news gathering, he said. 'We need better education for everyone from the freelancer level to the executive level,' Dr. Simon said, calling on people to look 'at the structures that ultimately allowed this factually false article to appear in a reputable news outlet.' The special section was removed from The Inquirer's website when it was discovered, according to Lisa Hughes, the publisher and chief executive of the paper. The section was also removed from The Sun-Times's e-paper version, according to a statement, and subscribers would not be charged for the premium edition. King Features did not respond to requests for comment, but in a statement provided to The Sun-Times said it had 'a strict policy with our staff, cartoonists, columnists, and freelance writers against the use of A.I. to create content.' In their statement, The Sun-Times said that the incident should be a 'learning moment.' 'Our work is valued — and valuable — because of the humanity behind it,' the statement read.
