AI-Generated Articles Slip Through Editorial Filters at Major Publications

How WIRED Got Rolled by an AI Freelancer

In fact we do, all the time. Our editors receive transparently AI-generated pitches on a regular basis, and we reject them accordingly. We report often and aggressively on AI slop and its effects on the media and other industries. And we're privileged to have a team of brilliant fact-checkers as part of our newsroom. Unfortunately, one got through. On April 7, one of our editors received an email with the subject line "PITCH: 'Do You Take This Discord Server?' -- The Rise of Hyper-Niche Internet Weddings." It had all the hallmarks of a great WIRED story: a quirky internet subculture, fun visual potential, and a larger point about "love, community, and identity in an era where physical spaces often feel less 'real' than our digital ones." You couldn't make a better WIRED pitch if you built it in a lab. Or in this case, with the help of a large language model chatbot. After some standard back-and-forth about framing and payment rates, our editor assigned the story. The edit process also raised no alarms; the writer accepted suggestions and responded to notes promptly and amiably. We published the story on May 7. Over the next several days, it became clear that the writer was unable to provide enough information to be entered into our payments system. They instead insisted on payment by PayPal or check. Now suspicious, a WIRED editor ran the story through two third-party AI-detection tools, both of which said that the copy was likely to be human-generated. A closer look at the details of the story, though, along with further correspondence from the writer, made it clear to us that the story had been an AI fabrication. After more due diligence from the head of our research desk, we retracted the story and replaced it with an editor's note. We made errors here: This story did not go through a proper fact-check process or get a top edit from a more senior editor. First-time contributors to WIRED should generally get both, and editors should always have full confidence that writers are who they say they are. Fabulists and plagiarists are as old as media itself. But AI presents a new challenge. It lets anyone craft a perfect pitch with a simple prompt and play-act the role of journalist convincingly enough to fool, well, us. We acted quickly once we discovered the ruse, and we've taken steps to ensure this doesn't happen again. In this new era, every newsroom should be prepared to do the same.

Wired and Business Insider remove articles by AI-generated 'freelancer'

At least six publications have taken down articles under the name Margaux Blanchard that were AI-generated Multiple news organisations have taken down articles written by an alleged freelance journalist that now appear to have been generated by AI. On Thursday, Press Gazette reported that at least six publications, including Wired and Business Insider, have removed articles from their websites in recent months after it was discovered that the stories - written under the name of Margaux Blanchard - were AI-generated. Wired published a story titled "They Fell in Love Playing Minecraft. Then the Game Became Their Wedding Venue" in May. A few weeks later, the outlet took down the story, stating in an editor's note: "After an additional review of the article ... Wired editorial leadership has determined this article does not meet our editorial standards." The story cited a "Jessica Hu", an alleged 34-year old "ordained officiant based in Chicago" who reportedly "made a name for herself as a 'digital celebrant', specialising in ceremonies across Twitch, Discord and VRChat", according to Press Gazette, which reviewed the Wired article. Both the Press Gazette and the Guardian were not able to verify the identity of Hu. Press Gazette further reported that in April, Business Insider published two essays by Blanchard titled: "Remote work has been the best thing for me as a parent but the worst as a person" and "I had my first kid at 45. I'm financially stable and have years of life experience to guide me." Earlier this week, Business Insider removed the articles after Press Gazette alerted the outlet over the authenticity of the author. Both article pages now feature a message saying that the stories were "removed because [they] didn't meet Business Insider's standards". The Guardian has contacted both Wired and Business Insider for comment. Press Gazette says it was first alerted to the inauthenticity of Blanchard's articles by Jacob Furedi, editor of a new magazine called Dispatch. Furedi said that he received a pitch from Blanchard earlier this month about "Gravemont, a decommissioned mining town in rural Colorado that has been repurposed into one of the world's most secretive training grounds for death investigation". In the pitch, which Furedi shared with Press Gazette, Blanchard wrote: "I want to tell the story of the scientists, ex-cops, and former miners who now handle the dead daily - not as mourners, but as archivists of truth. I'll explore the ethical tightrope of using real human remains in staged environments, the shadow economy of body donations, and the emotional toll on those who make a living from simulated tragedy. "I'm the right person for this because I've reported on hidden training sites before, have clearance contacts in forensic circles, and know how to navigate sensitive, closed-off communities with empathy and discretion," she added. Furedi told the Press Gazette that pitch sounded like it was generated by ChatGPT and couldn't find details about Gravemont. The Guardian has also not been able to verify details of the alleged town. Upon asking Blanchard how she discovered the town, she replied: "I'm not surprised you couldn't find much - Gravemont doesn't advertise itself. I first heard about it while interviewing a retired forensic pathologist for an unrelated piece." She went on to say: "Over the next few months, I pieced together more through a mix of public records requests, conversations with former trainees, and hints buried in conference materials from forensic associations. None of them referred to it by name in print, but the details lined up. Eventually, I spoke with a former miner from the area who confirmed the site's transformation after the mine closure. "It's one of those places that exists in the industry's collective memory, but just under the radar enough to evade coverage - which is exactly why I think it would resonate with Dispatch readers," Blanchard added. Furedi told Press Gazette that despite the pitch seeming "very convincing", he knew she was "bullshitting". He asked Blanchard for public record requests, about her standard rate and how long she planned to spend in the field. In response, Blanchard ignored Furedi's request to see public records requests and instead said she would "ideally spend 5-7 days on the ground" and be paid around $670, Press Gazette reports. Last Friday, Furedi accused Blanchard via email of publishing false stories to which she has not responded. Press Gazette further reports that Blanchard has not responded to its own request for her to provide evidence that she is a real person. This incident of false AI-generated reporting follows a May error when the Chicago Sun-Times' Sunday paper ran a syndicated section with a fake reading list created by AI. Marco Buscaglia, a journalist who was working for King Features Syndicate, turned to AI to help generate the list, saying: "Stupidly, and 100% on me, I just kind of republished this list that [an AI program] spit out ... Usually, it's something I wouldn't do ... Even if I'm not writing something, I'm at least making sure that I correctly source it and vet it and make sure it's all legitimate. And I definitely failed in that task."

Wired and Business Insider Accidentally Published AI-Generated Slop Articles by Seemingly Fake Journalist

Renowned publications including Wired and Business Insider have been caught publishing what appears to be AI slop. As Press Gazette reports in a fascinating investigation, numerous outlets have removed features published under the byline of "Margaux Blanchard" after suspicion emerged that the stories were fictionalized and AI-generated. After Press Gazette reached out to the non-profit Index on Censorship over an article by the same author, for instance, the publisher concluded that the piece "appears to have been written by AI." It's an especially galling situation for Wired, a publication that routinely features excellent coverage about how generative AI is slowly drowning the internet in uninspired slop, often undermining human creativity in the process. It's unclear how much money the person behind the ruse got away with, but considering that Wired sometimes pays thousands of dollars for in-depth, long-form reporting, it could be a considerable sum. One thing's for sure: the incident is very much a sign of the times. As AI tech progresses, chatbots are becoming incredibly adept at generating believable-sounding copy. In this case, human editors at reputable publications appear to have fallen victim to a scammer. "The essay 'Remote work has been the best thing for me as a parent but the worst as a person' was removed because it didn't meet Business Insider's standards," reads an August 19 editor's note where the article used to be. And an editor's note where Wired had previously published "They Fell in Love Playing Minecraft. Then the Game Became Their Wedding Venue" cautions that the story was taken down as it "does not meet our editorial standards." In many ways, the title of the piece perfectly meshes with Wired's usual coverage, making it a suitable pitch for the tech publication -- a quirky and otherwise harmless love story taking place inside a digital world. A quick perusal of an archived version of the since-deleted article reveals a tidily written piece about two individuals falling in love while playing the iconic video game. However, a closer look reveals several telltale signs of the piece having been generated by an AI, including already familiar sentence structures. The piece also references a 34-year-old ordained officiant in Chicago who doesn't appear to exist. The story continued to spread online. Wired's piece was aggregated by several other publications, including Mashable, whose associate editor, Tim Marcin, characterized it as a "charming feature" in a commentary piece that has since been replaced by a similar editor's note. Meanwhile, Business Insider published two personal essays under the same byline, just two days apart. One of them, an extremely generic piece about becoming a parent that was first published in April, is still available on the Dutch localization of the news site. "If there's one thing I've learned, it's this," the alleged author wrote. "There is no perfect time to become a parent. There is only the time that life gives you and what you choose to do with it." Dispatch editor Jacob Furedi told Press Gazette about his own experience of being pitched by the same author. The pitch, an intriguing story about a rural town in Colorado that was repurposed into the "world's most secretive training grounds for death investigation," turned out to be impossible to independently verify. The pitch raised alarm bells for Furedi, who found no evidence of the town's existence. While "very convincing," Furedi was convinced Blanchard was "bullshitting," he told Press Gazette. Several other magazines have also been caught publishing articles under the alleged writer's byline, including music publication Cone Magazine and even SFGate, an award-winning Californian news publication with tens of millions of monthly readers. An article about how superfandom of Disneyland goes from "hobby to an obsession" remains live on SFGate's website at the time of writing. The article mentions a TikTok content creator named Kayla Reed -- with "over 100,000 followers" -- who doesn't appear to exist. Though the impacted publications have been acting responsibly by taking down the shoddy articles, the stakes for the future of journalism are enormous. For one, trust in what we read online is actively being eroded by the tech. Last year, a study by researchers at the University of Kansas found that when readers know AI was involved in news production, the trust and credibility they hold in the source falls. Separate research by the independent organization Trusting News found that AI disclosures by newsrooms can hurt trust as well. Furedi told Press Gazette that he's already being inundated by "pitches which are clearly written by ChatGPT." It's a "terrible" trend, he said, that's "symptomatic of the direction that certain types of journalism are going in."

Wired, Business Insider delete phony articles allegedly written by AI...

Wired and Business Insider have deleted articles that had been supposedly written by a freelance journalist named Margaux Blanchard - after allegations emerged that they were actually penned by an AI bot and were filled with apparent fabrications. Several other US and UK publications have published - and some have paid for - articles from Blanchard on everything from feature stories on couples getting married on video games to a personal essay on having her first child at 45. But the alleged ruse fell apart when Blanchard emailed a pitch to Dispatch editor Jacob Furedi about "Gravemont, a decommissioned mining town in rural Colorado that has been repurposed into one of the world's most secretive training grounds for death investigation." It was "absolute bollocks," Furedi told Press Gazette. There was no Gravemont, and Blanchard could not provide any of the public records she claimed to have obtained, according to Press Gazette. At least six publications have uploaded articles by Blanchard, allowing her to use links to previous bylines to substantiate her career. And many of the articles written by the alleged AI bot include detailed accounts of sources who appear to be made up out of thin air. Wired was the first publication to delete an article attributed to Blanchard about real human couples getting married on Minecraft. The article cited "Jessica Hu, 34, an ordained officiant based in Chicago" who "made a name for herself as a 'digital celebrant'" - yet there's no trace of such an officiant online. Wired published an article Thursday about the ordeal, writing: "If anyone should be able to catch an AI scammer, it's Wired...Unfortunately one got through." The publication claimed it started noticing red flags when Blanchard insisted on being paid by PayPal or check, and was unable to provide any personal documentation. Wired said an editor ran the article through two third-party AI-detection tools, but it came back clear. In April, Business Insider published two personal essays by Blanchard two days apart about working remotely as a parent and having her first child at 45. On Tuesday, after Press Gazette said it flagged the concerns to Business Insider, the articles were taken down. "We have removed first-person essays that didn't meet Business Insider's standards and have since bolstered verification protocols," a Business Insider spokesperson told The Post. Cone Magazine, a UK music-and-art publication, also removed an article by Blanchard about indie streetwear brands after Press Gazette reached out sharing concerns. SFGate removed a feature published in April on Disney superfans with Blanchard's byline, which referenced "Kayla Reed, a 28-year-old content creator with over 100,000 followers" - though no record of such a viral influencer could be found. "In light of questions raised about this article, it has been removed pending an internal investigation," SFGate said in a statement. Naked Politics, a UK outlet targeted at young readers, published an article by Blanchard in May titled: "I was 14 when I first asked for help. Now I'm 17 and still waiting." Naked Politics removed the story, saying it "failed to meet the journalistic standards Naked Politics adheres to through our regulator Impress. This included likely false or unverifiable information from experts cited that were not able to be traced." "I think she could get away with writing an op-ed for a politics site, she could get away with writing some AI slop about mental health for Business Insider, and perhaps even to an extent she could write about the world of online for Wired," Furedi told Press Gazette. "But if it's about going to a place and speaking to people, you can't fake that."