In a statement posted to Bluesky, the Sun-Times denied writing the text of this embarrassing AI fiasco. “We are looking into how this made it into print as we speak. It is not editorial content and was not created by, or approved by, the Sun-Times newsroom,” the publication stated. “We value your trust in our reporting and take this very seriously. More info will be provided soon.”
So who’s to blame? Some of the writing in the guide is attributed to Marco Buscaglia, who admitted to 404 Media, “I do use AI for background at times but always check out the material first. This time, I did not and I can’t believe I missed it because it’s so obvious. No excuses. On me 100 percent and I’m completely embarrassed.” Of course, the AI that went into the “Heat Index” goes well beyond background. It includes full summaries of books that don’t exist and made-up quotes from made-up experts like “Dr. Jennifer Campos, professor of leisure studies at the University of Colorado.”
The guide was reportedly licensed from King Features, a subsidiary of media giant Hearst. (The “Heat Index” was apparently a national campaign sent to multiple newspapers across the country.) It’s unclear what the editorial process was for the guide, and why it wasn’t reviewed for accuracy. Philadelphia Inquirer CEO Lisa Hughes told Axios that the wholesale AI-generated content is “a violation of our own internal policies and a serious breach.” Victor Lim, the vice president of marketing and communications at Chicago Public Media (which owns the Sun-Times), told 404 Media, “Historically, we don’t have editorial review from those mainly because it’s coming from a newspaper publisher, so we falsely made the assumption there would be an editorial process for this. We are updating our policy to require internal editorial oversight over content like this.” He added that the paper is now reviewing its relationship with Hearst entirely. A representative for Hearst and King Features did not immediately respond to The A.V. Club’s request for comment.
