Found myself wincing while reading this story about how Ars Technica fired a reporter over fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool.
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Found myself wincing while reading this story about how Ars Technica fired a reporter over fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool. What a mess. And a tough one to bounce back from. I get asked all the time how I use AI in my work, and my answer is always the same: I don't, for all the reasons I also don't delegate important research to others, plus a whole bunch of other good reasons. But I really am interested in the answer from other journalists, because I suspect I'm in the minority here.
From Futurism.com:
"In the post, Edwards said that he was sick at the time, and “while working from bed with a fever and very little sleep,” he “unintentionally made a serious journalistic error” as he attempted to use an “experimental Claude Code-based AI tool” to help him “extract relevant verbatim source material.” He said the tool wasn’t being used to generate the article, but was instead designed to “help list structured references” to put in an outline. When the tool failed to work, said Edwards, he decided to try and use ChatGPT to help him understand why.
“I should have taken a sick day because in the course of that interaction, I inadvertently ended up with a paraphrased version of Shambaugh’s words rather than his actual words,” Edwards continued. He emphasized that the “text of the article was human-written by us, and this incident was isolated and is not representative of Ars‘ editorial standards. None of our articles are AI-generated, it is against company policy and we have always respected that.”
Ars Technica Fires Reporter After AI Controversy Involving Fabricated Quotes
Ars Technica has fired senior AI reporter Benj Edwards following an outrage-sparking controversy involving AI-fabricated quotes.
Futurism (futurism.com)
@briankrebs The other thing that strikes me about this is the fact that he CAN take sick days but did not. Why? Why continue to work? What is it that makes people think that this article is SO IMPORTANT that they can’t sleep when sick? (Unless that was all a made up excuse but I kinda doubt it)
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Found myself wincing while reading this story about how Ars Technica fired a reporter over fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool. What a mess. And a tough one to bounce back from. I get asked all the time how I use AI in my work, and my answer is always the same: I don't, for all the reasons I also don't delegate important research to others, plus a whole bunch of other good reasons. But I really am interested in the answer from other journalists, because I suspect I'm in the minority here.
From Futurism.com:
"In the post, Edwards said that he was sick at the time, and “while working from bed with a fever and very little sleep,” he “unintentionally made a serious journalistic error” as he attempted to use an “experimental Claude Code-based AI tool” to help him “extract relevant verbatim source material.” He said the tool wasn’t being used to generate the article, but was instead designed to “help list structured references” to put in an outline. When the tool failed to work, said Edwards, he decided to try and use ChatGPT to help him understand why.
“I should have taken a sick day because in the course of that interaction, I inadvertently ended up with a paraphrased version of Shambaugh’s words rather than his actual words,” Edwards continued. He emphasized that the “text of the article was human-written by us, and this incident was isolated and is not representative of Ars‘ editorial standards. None of our articles are AI-generated, it is against company policy and we have always respected that.”
Ars Technica Fires Reporter After AI Controversy Involving Fabricated Quotes
Ars Technica has fired senior AI reporter Benj Edwards following an outrage-sparking controversy involving AI-fabricated quotes.
Futurism (futurism.com)
@briankrebs nah, that's a firing. Like what?? It's a short blog post??? You can just copy the link???? There's like 4 links to keep track of?
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@briankrebs The other thing that strikes me about this is the fact that he CAN take sick days but did not. Why? Why continue to work? What is it that makes people think that this article is SO IMPORTANT that they can’t sleep when sick? (Unless that was all a made up excuse but I kinda doubt it)
@nirak Because Conde Nast runs Ars and other properties like content treadmills? Reporters are expected to churn out a lot of content and clicks.
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@briankrebs
Researcher rather than a journalist, but I use the AI embedded in my qualitative data analysis system to summarize, identify topics, and suggest coding, as a means of checking my own understanding of texts.
It results in higher construct validity and a better analysis@screwturn @briankrebs What if the summaries are wrong? How do you know? If you read through everything to find the errors, does it actually save time?
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Found myself wincing while reading this story about how Ars Technica fired a reporter over fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool. What a mess. And a tough one to bounce back from. I get asked all the time how I use AI in my work, and my answer is always the same: I don't, for all the reasons I also don't delegate important research to others, plus a whole bunch of other good reasons. But I really am interested in the answer from other journalists, because I suspect I'm in the minority here.
From Futurism.com:
"In the post, Edwards said that he was sick at the time, and “while working from bed with a fever and very little sleep,” he “unintentionally made a serious journalistic error” as he attempted to use an “experimental Claude Code-based AI tool” to help him “extract relevant verbatim source material.” He said the tool wasn’t being used to generate the article, but was instead designed to “help list structured references” to put in an outline. When the tool failed to work, said Edwards, he decided to try and use ChatGPT to help him understand why.
“I should have taken a sick day because in the course of that interaction, I inadvertently ended up with a paraphrased version of Shambaugh’s words rather than his actual words,” Edwards continued. He emphasized that the “text of the article was human-written by us, and this incident was isolated and is not representative of Ars‘ editorial standards. None of our articles are AI-generated, it is against company policy and we have always respected that.”
Ars Technica Fires Reporter After AI Controversy Involving Fabricated Quotes
Ars Technica has fired senior AI reporter Benj Edwards following an outrage-sparking controversy involving AI-fabricated quotes.
Futurism (futurism.com)
RE: https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/116165825763346603
this is a bummer too bc i always liked benj's non-AI-related work a lot -- his retronauts episodes are always great, and he's a treat to read/listen to on Old Computer Stuff. i sometimes wondered why he was even on the AI beat
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@screwturn @briankrebs What if the summaries are wrong? How do you know? If you read through everything to find the errors, does it actually save time?
@nirak @screwturn Spot on. If you have to redo someone else's work all the time because you're not sure if it's right, why not just do that work yourself from the get-go?
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@nirak Because Conde Nast runs Ars and other properties like content treadmills? Reporters are expected to churn out a lot of content and clicks.
@briankrebs So why is he saying “I should have taken a sick day”? If he’s not allowed to take sick days, why wouldn’t he say “I can’t take sick days, so…”
It’s a rhetorical question, because I know the answer is we’re trained to simp for companies no matter what, but I just don’t get it
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Found myself wincing while reading this story about how Ars Technica fired a reporter over fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool. What a mess. And a tough one to bounce back from. I get asked all the time how I use AI in my work, and my answer is always the same: I don't, for all the reasons I also don't delegate important research to others, plus a whole bunch of other good reasons. But I really am interested in the answer from other journalists, because I suspect I'm in the minority here.
From Futurism.com:
"In the post, Edwards said that he was sick at the time, and “while working from bed with a fever and very little sleep,” he “unintentionally made a serious journalistic error” as he attempted to use an “experimental Claude Code-based AI tool” to help him “extract relevant verbatim source material.” He said the tool wasn’t being used to generate the article, but was instead designed to “help list structured references” to put in an outline. When the tool failed to work, said Edwards, he decided to try and use ChatGPT to help him understand why.
“I should have taken a sick day because in the course of that interaction, I inadvertently ended up with a paraphrased version of Shambaugh’s words rather than his actual words,” Edwards continued. He emphasized that the “text of the article was human-written by us, and this incident was isolated and is not representative of Ars‘ editorial standards. None of our articles are AI-generated, it is against company policy and we have always respected that.”
Ars Technica Fires Reporter After AI Controversy Involving Fabricated Quotes
Ars Technica has fired senior AI reporter Benj Edwards following an outrage-sparking controversy involving AI-fabricated quotes.
Futurism (futurism.com)
@briankrebs I would be VERY deeply concerned about anybody claiming to be a journalist and using the incorrect plagiarism machine for literally anything.
If you are in the minority and not a 99%+ majority, the entirety of journalism is irreparably broken.
Doing it right is hard work. It absolutely should be better paid. And it is vitally important work, even when it seems not to be. -
Found myself wincing while reading this story about how Ars Technica fired a reporter over fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool. What a mess. And a tough one to bounce back from. I get asked all the time how I use AI in my work, and my answer is always the same: I don't, for all the reasons I also don't delegate important research to others, plus a whole bunch of other good reasons. But I really am interested in the answer from other journalists, because I suspect I'm in the minority here.
From Futurism.com:
"In the post, Edwards said that he was sick at the time, and “while working from bed with a fever and very little sleep,” he “unintentionally made a serious journalistic error” as he attempted to use an “experimental Claude Code-based AI tool” to help him “extract relevant verbatim source material.” He said the tool wasn’t being used to generate the article, but was instead designed to “help list structured references” to put in an outline. When the tool failed to work, said Edwards, he decided to try and use ChatGPT to help him understand why.
“I should have taken a sick day because in the course of that interaction, I inadvertently ended up with a paraphrased version of Shambaugh’s words rather than his actual words,” Edwards continued. He emphasized that the “text of the article was human-written by us, and this incident was isolated and is not representative of Ars‘ editorial standards. None of our articles are AI-generated, it is against company policy and we have always respected that.”
Ars Technica Fires Reporter After AI Controversy Involving Fabricated Quotes
Ars Technica has fired senior AI reporter Benj Edwards following an outrage-sparking controversy involving AI-fabricated quotes.
Futurism (futurism.com)
"We always write things by hand and never use AI, except for this one small case where you caught us. And the next time you catch us. But there's no general tendency. You're just very good at catching exactly the cases where we use AI." -
Found myself wincing while reading this story about how Ars Technica fired a reporter over fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool. What a mess. And a tough one to bounce back from. I get asked all the time how I use AI in my work, and my answer is always the same: I don't, for all the reasons I also don't delegate important research to others, plus a whole bunch of other good reasons. But I really am interested in the answer from other journalists, because I suspect I'm in the minority here.
From Futurism.com:
"In the post, Edwards said that he was sick at the time, and “while working from bed with a fever and very little sleep,” he “unintentionally made a serious journalistic error” as he attempted to use an “experimental Claude Code-based AI tool” to help him “extract relevant verbatim source material.” He said the tool wasn’t being used to generate the article, but was instead designed to “help list structured references” to put in an outline. When the tool failed to work, said Edwards, he decided to try and use ChatGPT to help him understand why.
“I should have taken a sick day because in the course of that interaction, I inadvertently ended up with a paraphrased version of Shambaugh’s words rather than his actual words,” Edwards continued. He emphasized that the “text of the article was human-written by us, and this incident was isolated and is not representative of Ars‘ editorial standards. None of our articles are AI-generated, it is against company policy and we have always respected that.”
Ars Technica Fires Reporter After AI Controversy Involving Fabricated Quotes
Ars Technica has fired senior AI reporter Benj Edwards following an outrage-sparking controversy involving AI-fabricated quotes.
Futurism (futurism.com)
@briankrebs
I do not use AI when I write tech articles for business IT magazines (it’s my main job at the moment). The reason: I cannot trust LLMs in any way, as the Ars story proves, and therefore I’d lose more time checking their output than doing things myself.
I tried to use ChatGpt to summarize long research papers or industry reports, but it’s mostly useless. I have to read papers and reports anyway - to learn what’s happening - and LLMs’ summaries are unreliable.
In one of my first attempts with LLMs, I asked ChatGPT to summarize some report’s data about a specific county, knowing that it wasn’t even mentioned in the study. Nonetheless, chat created a summary - with tables - based on non existing data.
For me, now, the inability of getting context is a definitive big no. -
@nirak @screwturn Spot on. If you have to redo someone else's work all the time because you're not sure if it's right, why not just do that work yourself from the get-go?
@briankrebs @nirak @screwturn That's the AI Trap. When 80% of the work feels like done by magic, but fixing the remaining 20% - plus the prep to get the AI there - ends up taking longer than doing it yourself.
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R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
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Found myself wincing while reading this story about how Ars Technica fired a reporter over fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool. What a mess. And a tough one to bounce back from. I get asked all the time how I use AI in my work, and my answer is always the same: I don't, for all the reasons I also don't delegate important research to others, plus a whole bunch of other good reasons. But I really am interested in the answer from other journalists, because I suspect I'm in the minority here.
From Futurism.com:
"In the post, Edwards said that he was sick at the time, and “while working from bed with a fever and very little sleep,” he “unintentionally made a serious journalistic error” as he attempted to use an “experimental Claude Code-based AI tool” to help him “extract relevant verbatim source material.” He said the tool wasn’t being used to generate the article, but was instead designed to “help list structured references” to put in an outline. When the tool failed to work, said Edwards, he decided to try and use ChatGPT to help him understand why.
“I should have taken a sick day because in the course of that interaction, I inadvertently ended up with a paraphrased version of Shambaugh’s words rather than his actual words,” Edwards continued. He emphasized that the “text of the article was human-written by us, and this incident was isolated and is not representative of Ars‘ editorial standards. None of our articles are AI-generated, it is against company policy and we have always respected that.”
Ars Technica Fires Reporter After AI Controversy Involving Fabricated Quotes
Ars Technica has fired senior AI reporter Benj Edwards following an outrage-sparking controversy involving AI-fabricated quotes.
Futurism (futurism.com)
Two-fold failure here. This guy should have taken a sick day (and possibly was incentivized not to do so? We don't know), and under no circumstances is "using AI to mine sources" an error you get to bounce back from as a journalist. Unforgivable - you understood the risks!
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Two-fold failure here. This guy should have taken a sick day (and possibly was incentivized not to do so? We don't know), and under no circumstances is "using AI to mine sources" an error you get to bounce back from as a journalist. Unforgivable - you understood the risks!
Ars Technica's credibility is forever marred by this event, however fair you think that is. And it's this dude's fault!
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"We always write things by hand and never use AI, except for this one small case where you caught us. And the next time you catch us. But there's no general tendency. You're just very good at catching exactly the cases where we use AI."
Also we only use it when we're sick - we'd definitely never do this when we're feeling fine, no sirree.
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@screwturn @briankrebs What if the summaries are wrong? How do you know? If you read through everything to find the errors, does it actually save time?
Wrong in what way?
Yes, in most cases I'm reading the entire text, but sometimes the AI captures something I missed, and other times it confirms what I already got.Time saving does feature, but the bigger issue is that using it improves validity, because of catching the missed topics
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@nirak @screwturn Spot on. If you have to redo someone else's work all the time because you're not sure if it's right, why not just do that work yourself from the get-go?
In qualitative research we routinely redo each other's work and our own.
Having an AI do that too increases construction validity and reliability. -
Found myself wincing while reading this story about how Ars Technica fired a reporter over fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool. What a mess. And a tough one to bounce back from. I get asked all the time how I use AI in my work, and my answer is always the same: I don't, for all the reasons I also don't delegate important research to others, plus a whole bunch of other good reasons. But I really am interested in the answer from other journalists, because I suspect I'm in the minority here.
From Futurism.com:
"In the post, Edwards said that he was sick at the time, and “while working from bed with a fever and very little sleep,” he “unintentionally made a serious journalistic error” as he attempted to use an “experimental Claude Code-based AI tool” to help him “extract relevant verbatim source material.” He said the tool wasn’t being used to generate the article, but was instead designed to “help list structured references” to put in an outline. When the tool failed to work, said Edwards, he decided to try and use ChatGPT to help him understand why.
“I should have taken a sick day because in the course of that interaction, I inadvertently ended up with a paraphrased version of Shambaugh’s words rather than his actual words,” Edwards continued. He emphasized that the “text of the article was human-written by us, and this incident was isolated and is not representative of Ars‘ editorial standards. None of our articles are AI-generated, it is against company policy and we have always respected that.”
Ars Technica Fires Reporter After AI Controversy Involving Fabricated Quotes
Ars Technica has fired senior AI reporter Benj Edwards following an outrage-sparking controversy involving AI-fabricated quotes.
Futurism (futurism.com)
@briankrebs
AI in journalism is Farse Technica -
@briankrebs
AI in journalism is Farse Technica@chicob Arse. It was right there, dude.
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Found myself wincing while reading this story about how Ars Technica fired a reporter over fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool. What a mess. And a tough one to bounce back from. I get asked all the time how I use AI in my work, and my answer is always the same: I don't, for all the reasons I also don't delegate important research to others, plus a whole bunch of other good reasons. But I really am interested in the answer from other journalists, because I suspect I'm in the minority here.
From Futurism.com:
"In the post, Edwards said that he was sick at the time, and “while working from bed with a fever and very little sleep,” he “unintentionally made a serious journalistic error” as he attempted to use an “experimental Claude Code-based AI tool” to help him “extract relevant verbatim source material.” He said the tool wasn’t being used to generate the article, but was instead designed to “help list structured references” to put in an outline. When the tool failed to work, said Edwards, he decided to try and use ChatGPT to help him understand why.
“I should have taken a sick day because in the course of that interaction, I inadvertently ended up with a paraphrased version of Shambaugh’s words rather than his actual words,” Edwards continued. He emphasized that the “text of the article was human-written by us, and this incident was isolated and is not representative of Ars‘ editorial standards. None of our articles are AI-generated, it is against company policy and we have always respected that.”
Ars Technica Fires Reporter After AI Controversy Involving Fabricated Quotes
Ars Technica has fired senior AI reporter Benj Edwards following an outrage-sparking controversy involving AI-fabricated quotes.
Futurism (futurism.com)
@briankrebs well, at least he only did it once.
er, correction ...
he only got *caught* doing it once -
Wrong in what way?
Yes, in most cases I'm reading the entire text, but sometimes the AI captures something I missed, and other times it confirms what I already got.Time saving does feature, but the bigger issue is that using it improves validity, because of catching the missed topics
@screwturn @nirak @briankrebs Even a blind pig will find the occasional acorn.
