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Ars Technica fires reporter after AI controversy involving fabricated quotes

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Re: Ars Technica fires reporter after AI controversy involving fabricated quotes

#61

Post by skygazer »

danso wrote: post #15
ab_testing wrote: post #3

So they fired that author after the author had publicly apologized on Blue sky.

Why would apologizing for plagiarism and fabrication preclude you from facing sanctions for plagiarism and fabrication?

Is it “plagiarism” to misattribute hallucinated quotes? Not that a whole lot of sloppy, unprofessional shortcuts weren’t taken, but plagiarism doesn’t seem like the right word, as quotes are almost definitionally not plagiarism. But maybe these were paraphrasings masquerading as quotes, so maybe that’s the difference.

Re: Ars Technica fires reporter after AI controversy involving fabricated quotes

#62

Post by petterroea »

AnonC wrote: post #50

Journalists and bloggers usually write about others’ mess ups and apologies, dissecting which apologies are authentic and which apologies are non-apologies. In this incident, Aurich Lawson of Ars Technica deleted the original article (which had LLM hallucinated quotes) instead of updating it with the error. He then published a vague non-apology, just like large companies and politicians usually do. And now we learn t…

It seemed to me like very hasty self defense, there's a lot of AI slop hate and Ars can't risk becoming known as slop when their readers are probably prone to be aware of the issue.

I don't think Ars thought they had a choice but to cut off the journalist who made the mistake, especially when it was regarding a very touchy subject. I don't think they had a choice, it's impossible for us readers to know if this was a single lapse of judgement or a bad habit. Regardless, the communication should have been better.

Re: Ars Technica fires reporter after AI controversy involving fabricated quotes

#63

Post by [deleted] »

breput wrote: post #55

As much as I respect the site and gladly financially support it, this is ultimately a failure on Ars Technica and its editors. If there are any. If this were just some random blogger, then yes the blame is totally theirs. But this was published under the Ars Technica masthead and there should have been someone or something double checking the veracity of the contents. That said, there are a number of Ars Technica con…

[deleted]

Re: Ars Technica fires reporter after AI controversy involving fabricated quotes

#64

Post by Marsymars »

bigyabai wrote: post #11
ab_testing wrote: post #3

So they fired that author after the author had publicly apologized on Blue sky.

Can you name any other way for Ars Technica to handle this situation without permanently soiling their reputation?

That's the thing. I feel kinda bad for Benj, I don't wish him ill, and maybe he keeps writing on his own site and/or other places, but I don't see any way that he could have kept writing for Ars.

Re: Ars Technica fires reporter after AI controversy involving fabricated quotes

#65

Post by lucaspfeifer »

raincole wrote: post #39

I have to admit, nowadays Google AI Overview's accuracy is so good that I often don't check the links. It's scary that it got from 'practically useless' to 'the actual google search' in less than two years. I really don't know where the internet is heading to and how any content site can survive.

It is scary but also exciting. As long as there are humans making informed decisions, there will be demand for quality sources of information. But to keep up with AI, content sites will need to raise their standards. Less intrusive ads, less superficial stuff, more in-depth articles with complex yet easily navigable structure, with layers of citations, diagrams, data, and impeccable accuracy. News articles with the technical depth of today's dissertations.

Re: Ars Technica fires reporter after AI controversy involving fabricated quotes

#66

Post by gdulli »

skygazer wrote: post #61
danso wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would apologizing for plagiarism and fabrication preclude you from facing sanctions for plagiarism and fabrication?

Is it “plagiarism” to misattribute hallucinated quotes? Not that a whole lot of sloppy, unprofessional shortcuts weren’t taken, but plagiarism doesn’t seem like the right word, as quotes are almost definitionally not plagiarism. But maybe these were paraphrasings masquerading as quotes, so maybe that’s the difference.

"Slop" and "hallucinate" have meanings outside of AI too, but it's easier to repurpose existing words than come up with a whole new lexicon for AI failure modes.

Re: Ars Technica fires reporter after AI controversy involving fabricated quotes

#67

Post by pseudalopex »

raincole wrote: post #39

I have to admit, nowadays Google AI Overview's accuracy is so good that I often don't check the links. It's scary that it got from 'practically useless' to 'the actual google search' in less than two years. I really don't know where the internet is heading to and how any content site can survive.

> I have to admit, nowadays Google AI Overview's accuracy is so good that I often don't check the links.

You would know how?

The links contradict or do not support the overviews often in my experience.

Re: Ars Technica fires reporter after AI controversy involving fabricated quotes

#68

Post by techpression »

lucaspfeifer wrote: post #65
raincole wrote: post #39

I have to admit, nowadays Google AI Overview's accuracy is so good that I often don't check the links. It's scary that it got from 'practically useless' to 'the actual google search' in less than two years. I really don't know where the internet is heading to and how any content site can survive.

It is scary but also exciting. As long as there are humans making informed decisions, there will be demand for quality sources of information. But to keep up with AI, content sites will need to raise their standards. Less intrusive ads, less superficial stuff, more in-depth articles with complex yet easily navigable structure, with layers of citations, diagrams, data, and impeccable accuracy. News articles with the t…

For AI to steal and summarize without attribution. These sites you talk about exists today but are dying because of AI.

Re: Ars Technica fires reporter after AI controversy involving fabricated quotes

#69

Post by fp64 »

Sad state of things. He did it because he was sick? That's close to claiming his dog ate the original quotes so he had to make some up.

Well, Ars Technica is already for quite some time on my ignore list, and this further solidifies its place there.

Re: Ars Technica fires reporter after AI controversy involving fabricated quotes

#70

Post by spppedury »

breput wrote: post #55

As much as I respect the site and gladly financially support it, this is ultimately a failure on Ars Technica and its editors. If there are any. If this were just some random blogger, then yes the blame is totally theirs. But this was published under the Ars Technica masthead and there should have been someone or something double checking the veracity of the contents. That said, there are a number of Ars Technica con…

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