The Local, a Toronto-area version of those online newspapers offering coverage that rivals or extends what the more established media have, ran an story recently about the articles now being offered to it -- many of which turn out to be AI creations using fake or borrowed interviews, invented material, and authors who may or may not be real people and may be submitting "Toronto" stories from a base that could be anywhere in the world. Suddenly an editor has to spend a lot more time deciding not just if the story is of interest but if the author and his/her material really exist. As The Local's editor writes:
I had been naively operating with a pre-ChatGPT mindset, still assuming a pitch’s ideas and prose were actually connected to the person who sent it. Worse, the reason the pitch had been appealing to me to begin with was likely because a large language model somewhere was remixing my own prompt asking for stories where “health and money collide,” flattering me by sending me back what I wanted to hear.
In the health/money story he got back, most of the quotations, even from real experts, had been faked, even in stories the "author" had successfully placed in some major international publications.
My own pre-ChatGPT mind screams out, why would anyone bother? Do they know what Canadian magazines pay?
But if people are making up news and current affairs stories, the potential for AI-created historical writing, both in trade and academic publications, must be immense. What a world!
