Sports Illustrated’s parent company, The Arena Group, said recent accusations that the outlet used AI-generated content and authors is “not accurate.”
In a statement, the company explained a third-party was responsible for the material outlined in the report.
"The articles in question were product reviews and were licensed content from an external, third-party company, AdVon Commerce. A number of AdVon’s e-commerce articles ran on certain Arena websites. We continually monitor our partners and were in the midst of a review when these allegations were raised."
The statement continued, "AdVon has assured us that all of the articles in question were written and edited by humans. According to AdVon, their writers, editors, and researchers create and curate content and follow a policy that involves using both counter-plagiarism and counter-AI software on all content. However, we have learned that AdVon had writers use a pen or pseudo name in certain articles to protect author privacy – actions we don’t condone – and we are removing the content while our internal investigation continues and have since ended the partnership."
The Arena Group’s explanation came after a report from Futurism on Monday identified AI-generated authors and headshots on the site, as well as some AI-generated content.
Fake authors for Sports Illustrated had no social media presence and no publishing history.
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) November 27, 2023
Their profile photos were found for sale on a site that sells AI-generated headshots.
Profiles would consistently disappear only to be replaced by new ones. pic.twitter.com/D5rP4q7FrG
Sports Illustrated Union said it was “horrified” by the report.
“If true, these practices violate everything we believe in about journalism. We deplore being associated with something so disrespectful to our readers,” the statement said.
"We want to be very clear: What is described in this Futurism story does not represent the hardworking journalists who make up the SI Union," the statement continued. "For nearly 70 years, Sl staff members have held themselves to the highest possible ethical standards. As members of the SI Union, we are proud to be part of that legacy and work every day to protect it. We expect management to do the same."