Arena Group fires CEO in wake of Sports Illustrated AI articles scandal • Hacker News Board

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

#41

Post by longbrass » Wed, Dec 13, 2023, 4:00 AM UTC

vlovich123 wrote: post #38

longbrass wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And these lies are not something that AI can be trusted to reveal, but a journalist can.

Ummm… what? Can you point to one major publication that is trying to cover this? Media corporations can control the narrative by controlling who they hire. It’s more expensive but they’ve been doing it for a long time so there’s institutional knowledge. Also, these same companies make their money on advertising so explain to me why you’d trust them to go after their sole remaining revenue stream?

I can in fact point to the link at the top of this page as one example.

Journalist have regularly covered journalism scandals. Can you point to AI that is capable of the same?

Another example: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelnoer/2014/11/12/read-the...

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-top-journalism-scandals-207375...

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

#42

Post by PhasmaFelis » Wed, Dec 13, 2023, 4:07 AM UTC

saintkaye wrote: post #3

The pub was failing and the CEO took an innovation risk that in its near outcome changes the economics of a dying business. He should be admired not fired.

If you think making a profit is the one and only thing that deserves admiration, sure. I'm certain you're smart enough to see the flaws in that viewpoint.

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

#43

Post by filoleg » Wed, Dec 13, 2023, 4:14 AM UTC

genedan wrote: post #12

bko wrote: post #8

70 years ago there was a job for someone to stand in an elevator and press a button for the rider. Today we have jobs for people to rearticulate box scores. If a computer can do it adequately it should be done by a computer. I don't want to bring back the button pusher and I'm okay with ai authors. But they really shouldn't lie about it

There are still elevators like that in the Fine Arts Building in Chicago. In addition to the elevators, it's a great place to be if you're a musician. There are studios, practice rooms, and musical instrument shops too.

The office building in Manhattan that I work at, the elevator is like that as well. I am fairly certain there are plenty of people on HN working in that same building who could corroborate this

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

#44

Post by phatskat » Wed, Dec 13, 2023, 6:20 AM UTC

1123581321 wrote: post #25

mistrial9 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have heard that guy speak - he does seem to show some leadership quality and also business integrity to some extent. give him a chance :-)

I also have a positive impression of him, from past interviews. Seems relatively humble. I’ve never tried the product.

It’s honestly not bad for what it is - the aftertaste is a little chalky but they’re relatively small (about the size of a shot).

As for effects, it’s maybe “cleaner” than the jittery that comes with large amounts of caffeine, and certainly easier on the body than kratom if you’re not adjusted to it. For a gas station stimulant it’s pretty decent imo.

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

#45

Post by DonsDiscountGas » Wed, Dec 13, 2023, 11:18 AM UTC

madamelic wrote: post #33

khazhoux wrote: post #31

The number of execs that got canned suggests this was not about AI articles.

It does strike me as ironic that they fired him after a meeting about cutting costs and increasing operating efficiencies. I would guess AI authors would do both. There has to be more to the story for sure.

Getting caught means it's not worth it for sure. I'm also a little skeptical that writer-pay is a big cost-center; actually hiring unknown writers (as opposed to pretending to) wouldn't cost that much.

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

#46

Post by batguano » Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 1:49 AM UTC

nuz wrote: post #11

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #5

Who ratted him out? Or could the readers tell?

They were using stylegan faces for the profiles. It's pretty obvious. (Had they not used those they probably would have gotten away with it though.)

We’d have gotten away with it if it weren’t for you meddling kids!

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

#47

Post by eappleby » Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 12:27 PM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #19

dpflan wrote: post #2

HN Post about the spotted article(s) 2 weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38436516 And wow, the new interim CEO: """ Bhargava is the founder of the company behind the 5-Hour Energy Drink product. """

He's the majority shareholder of Arena Group, SI's parent company. Makes sense to have him as interim. Not sure why they left that out.

Article was probably written by AI

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

#48

Post by saghm » Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 5:27 PM UTC

phatskat wrote: post #44

1123581321 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also have a positive impression of him, from past interviews. Seems relatively humble. I’ve never tried the product.

It’s honestly not bad for what it is - the aftertaste is a little chalky but they’re relatively small (about the size of a shot). As for effects, it’s maybe “cleaner” than the jittery that comes with large amounts of caffeine, and certainly easier on the body than kratom if you’re not adjusted to it. For a gas station stimulant it’s pretty decent imo.

My dad started using it occasionally years ago when we drove on long car trips. He's never liked coffee, so I think something quick and easy to get a similar type of boost is probably a pretty reasonable offering for a lot of people.

(I also don't like coffee, but I also haven't driven since high school and like likely never will again. It does sometimes feel like a lot of "infrastructure" is set up for the majority of people who do like coffee, though; just the other day, I visited someone in a co-working space that had complementary drinks, but only coffee-related things like lattes and cappuccinos and such that I've never learned the difference between because I don't like any of them. I ended up buying a drink from a nearby vending machine instead)