United StatesMedia and entertainment2023Gannett
LedeAI automated high school sports recaps
Gannett paused AI-written high school sports recaps in August 2023 after stories ran with unfilled template placeholders
Problem
Local papers had few reporters to cover every high school game. Gannett wanted more game recaps without adding staff.
Approach
Gannett bought automated recaps from the vendor LedeAI and ran them in several local papers, including the Columbus Dispatch. In August 2023 one soccer story went viral because it still contained placeholder text such as a mascot tag. CNN found similar stories at four other Gannett papers. Gannett paused the experiment in all markets that used the service, and LedeAI's chief executive acknowledged legitimate problems.
Results
No figures published
Takeaway
Gannett stopped the vendor service within weeks of public ridicule. The errors were basic template failures, so a human read-through before publication would have caught them.
Categories
- Size
- Large enterprise
- Industry
- Media and entertainment
- Business function
- Production and qualityMarketing and sales
- Innovation type
- Process innovationProduct and service innovation
- AI technology
- Generative AI
- Adoption
- Vendor solution
- Evidence
- Press reporting
Sources
Source summaries
CNN reports that Gannett paused LedeAI in all local markets after errors spread online. The Columbus Dispatch and four other Gannett papers published faulty recaps, and LedeAI's chief executive acknowledged problems.
Editor & Publisher reports that the Worthington Christian versus Westerville North soccer recap kept the placeholder tag [[WINNING_TEAM_MASCOT]]. The recap was later corrected.
Full details are in the original sources.