Is our machines learning? The jury is still out on whether AI can up its PR game

Artificial intelligence promises to be transformative technology across diverse fields. Yet critics in many of those fields charge that the current state of AI is looking like a bad Michael Bay knockoff instead.

In journalism, transportation, the arts, and more, machine learning is receiving vigorous pushback. Can the benefits of AI overcome the bad PR?

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Sports Illustrated was once a dominant publication in American journalism. Yet Ross Levinsohn, CEO of the Arena Group, which publishes SI, was let go in mid-December after a scandal broke involving articles that were bylined by AI-generated writers.

Manoj Bhargava, creator of the 5-hour Energy drink brand, was a large stakeholder in the company. He will take over as CEO for the foreseeable future to try to clean up the mess. Though a spokesman insisted to the BBC that the old CEO’s removal “had absolutely nothing to do with the AI issue at all,” the timing is suspect.

The outcry wasn’t simply that SI had allegedly used AI to write articles but had hosted fabricated bios for its AI writers as well. The online publication Futurism published a story in late November titled, “Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated Writers: We asked them about it — and they deleted everything.”

Exhibit A was “Drew Ortiz,” a “product reviewer” for outdoors equipment whose author biography claimed that he “grew up in a farmhouse, surrounded by woods, fields, and a creek” and on weekends likes to go “camping, hiking, or just back on his parents’ farm.”

One tiny problem with that story. “Outside of Sports Illustrated, Drew Ortiz doesn’t seem to exist,” reporter Maggie Harrison wrote. “He has no social media presence and no publishing history. And even more strangely, his profile photo on Sports Illustrated is for sale on a website that sells AI-generated headshots, where he’s described as ‘neutral white young-adult male with short brown hair and blue eyes.’”

Futurism found what appeared to be several other fake AI writer bylines and biographies on the SI website and on the website of another property owned by the Arena Group, TheStreet. Suspect names included Sora Tanaka, Domino Abrams, Denise McNamara, and Nicole Merrifield.

“Basic scrutiny shows that the quality of the AI authors’ posts is often poor, with bizarre-sounding language and glaring formatting discrepancies,” Futurism reported.

When contacted about the fake profiles, SI initially deleted the content but did not comment on it. After the publication of the story, the Arena Group blamed a third-party contractor, AdVon Commerce, for the problem.

The Arena Group insisted through a spokesperson that the contractor “has assured us that all of the articles in question were written and edited by humans” though it had “use[d] a pen or pseudo name in certain articles to protect author privacy — actions we don’t condone — and we are removing their content while our internal investigation continues and have since ended the partnership.”

Where the company goes from here reputationally is an open question. The Sports Illustrated Union representing the magazine’s living, breathing writers is angry.

“If true, these practices violate everything we believe in about journalism,” the union said in a statement after the story broke. “We deplore being associated with something so disrespectful to our readers.”

Tesla recall
Elon Musk’s electric automaker Tesla may be faring a bit better with its latest machine learning hurdle, if its stock price is any indicator.

Tesla stock was up over $2, to $239.29 per share on Dec. 13 after news broke that over 2 million of its vehicles are being “recalled” over a problem related to the autos’ Autosteer function.

The short of it is that the car’s autopilot function is supposed to supplement people’s driving, but some drivers lean on it too much, which can lead to accidents. Teslas thus have a backup system to make sure drivers are paying attention, which was not stringent enough for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Critics had been bemoaning the automaker’s claims about its autopilot feature for years, so corrective action had likely already been priced into the stock. Tesla grumbled but went along with the recall, though the term is arguably misleading. The company is issuing an over-the-air software update to address the problem.

That is bound to be a lot cheaper than tinkering with the hardware of 2 million vehicles, thus the minor Wall Street rally in the face of what initially looked like bad news.

This virtual recall could also be good news for busy Tesla drivers. Rather than having to put their vehicles in the shop and wait for repairs, their cars can simply undergo system upgrades while they recharge.

In the world of comic books and comic book-related entertainment, AI is faring particularly poorly. Prominent comic book creators have denounced AI-generated art as little more than algorithmic theft of existing artwork. Many fans seem inclined to agree.

The Marvel television miniseries Secret Invasion, streaming on Disney+, sailed into rough waters this summer when it was revealed that much of the background art for the title sequence was AI-generated.

“A Rotten Tomatoes score of just 57% (and a 13% rating for the finale) means the Nick Fury-led adaptation of the essential Marvel Comics event is officially the worst MCU TV show, at the ninth time of asking, despite costing a reported $212 m[illion],” ScreenRant reported.

The series might have been a critical and commercial flop anyway, but the added controversy over AI didn’t help matters.

AI is no paradise
“People think artificial intelligence means ‘imitation thinking’ when what it actually means is ‘fabricated knowledge,’” Tim Schumann, a programmer and sometimes tech entrepreneur, told the Washington Examiner. “They’re anthropomorphizing a tool.”

But what a tool. Terry Moore is the creator of Strangers in Paradise and several other indie comic book hits. He argues a more narrow focus for AI would be better for art and humanity.

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AI is “great for science & business,” Moore wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, in October. “The super fast adaptive calculations [are] already making huge advances in all research areas. Ex[ample]: the next US moon trip was calculated in 3 minutes vs 3 yrs for 1st one — and the new route is far more tricky.”

But AI as art? “No. Hell no,” Moore said. “Put AI to work on world hunger and global problems. Don’t waste it making fast & cheap entertainment for a quick buck. Don’t be an asshole with this opportunity to fix super complex problems in matters that can save lives and our planet.”