Sports Illustrated magazine reportedly laid off its entire staff after the iconic magazine was caught using AI to write articles.
The stunning news was first reported by A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports.
In December, the publisher of Sports Illustrated fired CEO Ross Levinsohn after the editors were caught using AI to write articles.
In November, Futurism.com published an article exposing Sports Illustrated‘s use of AI writers to create articles that were attributed to human writers.
Sports Illustrated allegedly created author biographies for its fake AI writers.
One bio read:
“Drew has spent much of his life outdoors, and is excited to guide you through his never-ending list of the best products to keep you from falling to the perils of nature. Nowadays, there is rarely a weekend that goes by where Drew isn’t out camping, hiking, or just back on his parents’ farm.”
The only problem is “Drew” doesn’t exist in human form.
The profile photo Sports Illustrated used for Drew’s headshot is for sale on a website that sells AI-generated headshots.
The AI headshot was described as “neutral white young-adult male with short brown hair and blue eyes.”
When caught red-handed, Sports Illustrated‘s editors initially denied using AI to write articles.
“The content is absolutely AI-generated,” a Sports Illustrated source told Futurism, “no matter how much they say that it’s not.”
After Futurism published its story in November 2023, an Arena Group spokesperson blamed a contractor for the AI-generated content.
Check out some of Sports Illustrated‘s most iconic covers below.
