Arena Group fires CEO in wake of Sports Illustrated AI articles scandal

> From 2001 to 2005, Levinsohn was senior vice president and general manager at Fox Sports Interactive Media, a division of News Corporation.[9] In late 2004, he was named president of Fox Interactive Media and oversaw a controversial, and arguably fraudulent, acquisition of MySpace for $580 million.[10] Levinsohn resigned from News Corp. in November 2006 and was replaced by his cousin.[11]

> Levinsohn led Yahoo for two months as interim CEO in 2012. After the board of directors passed him over for the permanent CEO position, hiring Google executive Marissa Mayer, Levinsohn left the company.[18]

> In 2014, Levinsohn became executive chairman of Scout Media, a sports digital media network.[20] The firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2016, seeking approval to sell what remained of the business at auction.[21][22] Levinsohn and Heckman were named as defendants in a shareholder lawsuit filed in 2017, in federal court.[23]

> On 21 August 2017, Levinsohn was named the publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times by tronc, replacing Davan Maharaj.[24] Levinsohn was placed on unpaid leave in January 2018, after reports of two sexual harassment lawsuits, 'frat house' behavior and questionable decisions on the job from interviews with 26 former colleagues and associates.[27][28] A law firm hired by Tronc to investigate the sexual harassment claims found no wrongdoing after a three-week investigation.[26][29]

The Guardian article is a bit handwavy about the AI connection but I don't think there's any evidence that this led to Levinsohn's undoing. Maven/Arena has been a... challenging company for some time.

> The release did not mention the AI scandal from November, which was spurred by an investigative report published by the science and technology news publication Futurism. Earlier this year, a round of layoffs hit the magazine shortly after the Arena Group’s CEO and chairman, Ross Levinsohn, announced the company’s incorporation of AI. Sports Illustrated accused of publishing articles written by AI Read more

> Among fake profiles uncovered by Futurism was that of purported author “Sora Tanaka” which claims she is a product reviewer. The page said: “Sora has always been a fitness guru, and loves to try different foods and drinks. Ms Tanaka is thrilled to bring her fitness and nutritional expertise to the Product Reviews Team, and promises to bring you nothing but the best of the best.”

> Tanaka is not a real person.

If you can’t tell then what’s the problem? If you can what’s the problem?

I have bigger problems with everyday lies that already happen that are treated as “normal”. For example, advertising a price cut as if there’s a discount by raising the everyday price and discounting to the previous everyday price, using celebrities/influencers to promote products, paying for product reviews in some way, etc etc.