@mttaggart A 404 without an apology is a terrible look for them. In my life you get one shot. If you slop me once I will never use your service again...

@mttaggart Makes me want to delete AT from my regular sources, but I'll hold off. They should issue an apology if they haven't.

@Sobex @bnys @mttaggart
and while this was a faster response than the trans hit piece of a couple years ago, it's the same playbook: lock comments, promise an investigation, and hope it dies down over the weekend.
A pity really. A place I used to value. For me, the anti-trans piece was the end.

@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

@theorangetheme I think the lock might be SOP for a pulled story. And mods tend not to like rampant speculation.

@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.

What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.

UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.

Page not found 404 | Ars Technica

(arstechnica.com)

What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.

UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.

Page not found 404 | Ars Technica

(arstechnica.com)

2/

Russia & Putin
Putin deluded himself that AI-enabled warfare will solve his manpower problems & population bottlenecks. 1.3 million dead soldiers so far in Ukraine.
https://www.neimagazine.com/news/putin-links-nuclear-buildout-to-russias-ai-ambitions/

wsj.com

(www.wsj.com)

How technophobe Putin led Russia to surrender in the AI arms race

The Kremlin made Yuri Gagarin the first man in space but now lags Luxembourg in AI — which the president seems to regard as a challenge to his authority

(www.thetimes.com)

What's going on here? The matplotlib maintainer this story is about correctly notes that all the quotes from his post in the article are made up.

UPDATE: Link was pulled; see below.

Page not found 404 | Ars Technica

(arstechnica.com)

3/

Koch Network
Building a White Supremacist Constitution one brick at a time over 60 years.

The hate is now automated, corrupt, & well funded.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/us/politics/koch-network-2024-election-trump.html

forbes.com

(www.forbes.com)

The Koch Network Is Pushing Trump to Accelerate AI, Documents Show

Right-wing political group Americans for Prosperity, backed by oil and gas billionaire Charles Koch, sees data centers as part of a larger pro-fossil fuel agenda.

DeSmog (www.desmog.com)

Like His Dad, Charles Koch Was a Bircher (New Documents)

Many have noted that the Koch Brothers' dad was a Bircher, but new documents show Charles was, too.

Progressive.org (progressive.org)

With AI, the wealthy skip paying for hate-for-hire campaigns like Facebook, Tenet Media, or the Russian Internet Research Agency

Top Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg just apologized for racist ad targeting

She was “disgusted and disappointed.”

Mother Jones (www.motherjones.com)

The Kochs’ Anti-Civil Rights Roots: New Docs Expose Charles Koch’s Ties to John Birch Society

The Progressive magazine and Center for Media and Democracy have released new documents that show billionaire oil industrialist Charles Koch was an active member of the controversial right-wing John Birch Society during its campaigns against the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Charles Koch was following in the footsteps of his father, Fred Koch, a leader of the John Birch Society from its founding. We speak with The Progressive’s Lisa Graves about her new article, “The Koch Cartel: Their

Democracy Now! (www.democracynow.org)

Who Sponsored the Hate?

Jane Mayer on the Koch brothers’ surprising disapproval of Donald Trump, and their own history of toxic rhetoric.

The New Yorker (www.newyorker.com)

Access to this page has been denied

px-captcha

(thehill.com)

Did the John Birch Society Win in the End?

Modern conservatism was built by purging the right’s reckless conspiracy theorists—but now they’ve taken over.

(www.thebulwark.com)

@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
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)

@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.

@mttaggart

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

LOL

@aliide @theorangetheme @mttaggart
You would think that your point about original work would apply to software engineering too (I think it does), but there seemingly are managers out there - or at least directors applying pressure - who want their engineers to use it.

@GerardThornley @theorangetheme @mttaggart

I think the pressure on SWEs is *considerably* higher given the institutional pressure to make AI work! I'm sure many engineers want to write original code too, though.