USA Today’s Publisher Revises Sports Posts After AI Reporter’s Mistakes
Gannett, a major publisher, has been forced to review all the articles produced by their AI system after it was revealed that they had been using it to generate high school sports reports without disclosure. This comes just a week after they initially halted the project following public backlash. It seems that the lessons from CNET’s controversial AI incident earlier this year were not taken into account.
Gannett operates several regional and national publications, including USA Today, The Arizona Republic and The Detroit Free Press. The company designed “Lede AI” as a way to automate the task of summarizing results for local high school sports leagues—a task that AI proved completely incapable of. One such article read:
The Hardin County Tigers defeated the Memphis Business Execs 48-12 in a Tennessee high school football game on Friday. Hardin County scored early and often to roll over Memphis Business 48-12 in a Tennessee high school football matchup.
“High school reporting is different than covering college or professional sports,” an anonymous Gannett sportswriter told Yahoo News. “And high school reporting can be underrated, but it’s extremely important. You’re covering the community.”
“You’re not writing for such a general audience, but you’re writing for a very, very specific audience,” they added. “Family members — uncles, parents, people who care that your story has their kids’ names on it. They’re looking for memories, things they can remember from their kids’ high school careers.”
In response to the criticism, Gannett has decided to “suspend” the use of artificial intelligence for the time being, although the company did not mention that it would completely abandon its use. The company has also reportedly checked and updated the factual accuracy of each message written by the AI. The above blurb now reads simply: “The Hardin County Tigers beat the Memphis Business Execs 48-12 in a Tennessee high school football game on Friday.”
Gannett’s partnership with AI writers is the latest in a growing industry trend that includes Buzzfeed closing its newsroom entirely in favor of AI-generated content, Google developing genAI for writing news posts, and Apple building a fundamental competitor to ChatGPT. Even AP is adapting its approach to new technology.
