@cR0w

WILD! Thank you @mttaggart for reporting on this!

❝Okay, an update:

We have pulled the story over concerns that it may have gone against our content policies. I locked the comments, and I'm going to lock this one too, we need some time.

We are doing an investigation right now to figure out exactly what happened. Given that it's Friday afternoon we probably won't have something to report back until Monday, but we will follow up with an explanation for our readers. Edit: Monday is a holiday, my bad, and I don't know what we'll be able to say, so I don't want to over-promise anything.❞

Source: Ars forum https://arstechnica.com/civis/threads/journalistic-standards.1511650/#post-44249741

@Sobex @bnys @mttaggart Oh, you see the comment where Aurich called Discord demanding biometrics and scans of ID cards 'a nothingburger'? And the further comments (plural) where he defended that wording?

@mttaggart

We need some time to 'investigate' whether we are using AI or not. We plumb forgot.

LOL

@mttaggart I am shocked, shocked that an article under the name of Ars' resident bot licker contains hallucinations.

@implementcontrols They issued this statement:

Journalistic standards?

Hi folks, Since Ars is apparently posting partially or fully AI generated articles now, I have to ask - is this going to be a continued policy going...

Ars OpenForum (arstechnica.com)

@megatronicthronbanks

We have pulled the story over concerns that it may have gone against our content policies. I locked the comments, and I'm going to lock this one too, we need some time.

We are doing an investigation right now to figure out exactly what happened. Given that it's Friday afternoon we probably won't have something to report back until Monday, but we will follow up with an explanation for our readers. Edit: Monday is a holiday, my bad, and I don't know what we'll be able to say, so I don't want to over-promise anything.

Wait until we learn the results (or lack thereof) of this investigation.
Maybe its just CYA, maybe they are seriously looking into this.

@colo_lee What anti-trans piece?

@dusk @cR0w @mttaggart @iampytest1

"…I don't know what we'll be able to say, so I don't want to over-promise anything…"

You say, 'We won't use AI to write our publication'

There's nothing else to say.
There's no promises to be made.

Ars prides itself on technical accuracy. AI slop is a direct hit to their identity. The longer they wait to give a straight answer, the more it *appears* like they're trying to figure out how much they can get away with, instead of just being bluntly transparent.

@mttaggart @theorangetheme I'm genuinely confused about how this was allowed to happen. I tend to assume Ars has better editorial processes than some of the places I've worked, and both writers have long-term specialisations. My most charitable explanation is that someone created a version that they though would be funny and that was accidentally published. Very curious to see what their investigation yields.

@aliide @mttaggart I think people either simply don't care anymore, or workers are under such corporate pressure to either deliver or use AI (or both), and this is the natural endpoint of that. Probably a little of both (I know genuine enthusiasts, for whom I've lost all respects, but I also know people who are basically being forced to use AI by their corporate overlords). I don't know much, but I do know this: journalists don't run newspapers.

@theorangetheme @mttaggart oh, we very much don't, and I've even had editors insert mistakes into my stories before, without giving me readbacks. But this isn't the case of a single word or phrase, this is entire quotes being inserted. I don't buy into the idea that there is pressure on journos to use AI though — the point of the profession is original work, which AI by definition cannot do.

@aliide @mttaggart I hope you're right. I'm trying not to be too cynical, but it's hard lately.

@aliide @mttaggart Thank you for the work that you do, by the way. Good journalism is a treasure, and sorely needed.

@mttaggart simply amazing, in the worst possible way.

@mttaggart this is crazy. The Ai bots commenting under his blog is just rubbing salt on the wound.

@Npars01

Look at that picture! This is why you need to figure out how to get control of a robot at distance.

@mttaggart
I don't know what is real anymore, holy shit.

If I'm reading things correctly Ars hallucinated the quotes in the article but still linked to this blog post correctly, right?

An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me

Summary: An AI agent of unknown ownership autonomously wrote and published a personalized hit piece about me after I rejected its code, attempting to damage my reputation and shame me into acceptin…

The Shamblog (theshamblog.com)

@Npars01
Imagine having half a BILLION dollars to change the world, and choosing to bring this about!

@rusty__shackleford @dusk @cR0w @mttaggart @iampytest1

This is bad enough that a serious company that wanted to salvage their reputation properly might wanna consider putting in some weekend overtime.

But if they were being conscientious and diligent none of this would've happened in the first place. So of course instead it's, oops oh well I guess we'll deal with it sometime next week or something...

@bobkmertz

Yep, that's about the size of it!