United StatesMedia and entertainment2023The Arena Group (Sports Illustrated)
Licensed product reviews under AI-generated author profiles
Sports Illustrated ran product reviews under writers with AI-generated headshots, then deleted them and dropped the supplier
Problem
Magazine websites earn affiliate commissions from product reviews and buying guides, which need a steady flow of low-cost content. The Arena Group licensed such content from an outside company.
Approach
Sports Illustrated's site published product reviews licensed from AdVon Commerce under bylines such as "Drew Ortiz", whose profile photo was on sale on a website for AI-generated headshots and who had no trace outside the magazine. In November 2023 Futurism reported this, citing two people involved who said the articles themselves were AI-generated. The author profiles disappeared after Futurism asked about them. The Arena Group said AdVon had assured it the reviews were written by people using pen names, but removed the content and ended the partnership.
Results
Takeaway
The publisher accepted its supplier's account of how the content was made, and the magazine's reputation suffered. Readers and the newsroom's union reacted most strongly to the invented author profiles, more than to the AI text itself.
Categories
- Industry
- Media and entertainment
- Business function
- Marketing and salesProduction and quality
- Innovation type
- Business model innovation
- AI technology
- Generative AI
- Adoption
- Vendor solution
- Evidence
- Press reporting
Sources
Source summaries
Futurism reports that the product reviewer "Drew Ortiz" had no presence outside Sports Illustrated and that his headshot was sold on a site for AI-generated portraits, and that his profile later redirected to another such persona. Two anonymous people involved said the content was AI-generated, and the profiles were deleted after Futurism asked about them. The Arena Group blamed licensor AdVon Commerce, which it said used pen names. Futurism also found similar personas at TheStreet.
Interesting Engineering reports that Sports Illustrated disputed Futurism's findings on X based on its initial investigation. The magazine ended its partnership with AdVon Commerce and began an internal review, and the author profiles were removed. It cites CBS News that the Arena Group's shares fell more than 22% and quotes the SI union saying it was "horrified".
Full details are in the original sources.
