A reporter recently resigned from a Wyoming newspaper after admitting to using artificial intelligence to generate citations and assist in writing articles, resulting in several articles being fabricated and the editor issuing a public apology.
Aaron Pelczar left the Cody Enterprise on August 2 after a rival newspaper, the Powell Tribune, confronted him with evidence that he had “invented some of the quotes that appeared in several of his articles.”
CJ Baker, an editor at the Powell Tribune, wrote in a published article that Pelczar told him the quotes in his stories may have been created by an artificial intelligence tool he uses to write his articles.
Seven people have so far told the Cody Enterprise that they did not tell Pelczar what he quoted from them. Those people include Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and a victim of an alleged crime, Baker wrote.
“The Tribune also found a number of other quotes that had been altered in some way or attributed to the wrong person,” Baker said.
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When Pelczar was shown some of the Powell Tribune’s findings on August 2, the reporter told Baker he was “not sure where some of the quotes came from.” Pelczar also said he would “apologize” and correct any quotes deemed incorrect or untrue.
“Of course, I never intentionally tried to misquote anyone,” Pelczar said, according to Baker’s article in the Powell Tribune.
After meeting with Cody Enterprise editor Chris Bacon and Pelczar on Friday, and after he provided more evidence to the newspaper on Sunday, most of the fabricated quotes were removed from the website on Tuesday and Wednesday, Baker said. He also said editor’s notes were added to articles containing the AI-generated material.
“Artificial Intelligence was allowed to misquote people in several of our articles… We regret this lack of oversight,” the Cody Enterprise said in its correction in Thursday’s edition.
“I will put aside my weakness with all the dignity I can muster”
Bacon published an editorial on Monday titled “Eating Crow” addressing Pelczar’s actions.
“I didn’t notice,” Bacon wrote. “And it’s my job, dear reader, to make sure the facts in your paper are facts. It doesn’t matter that the misquotes were obviously the mistake of a rushed, inexperienced reporter who trusted the AI. It was my job.”
Bacon apologized to readers for allowing the AI to “insert words that were never spoken into stories.” He also apologized to “the governor, the astronomers, the construction manager, Warden Crane, and all the others” whose misquotes he could not yet confirm.
“I will put aside my weakness with the utmost dignity I can muster, even though pheasant tastes much better,” Bacon wrote. “I will do better.”
AI mishap means ‘learning curve’ for Cody Enterprise
Megan Barton, publisher of the Cody Enterprise, commented on the situation on August 7, saying the newspaper had suffered its “fair share of ‘demise.'”
“AI is not as great as it is touted to be, especially in our field of work,” Barton wrote on the newspaper’s website. “We are extremely proud of the content we provide to our community, and we trust that the people hired to write these stories accurately are honest in sourcing their information, so you can imagine our surprise when we learned otherwise.”
Barton called the ordeal a “learning curve for all of us” and said AI was “the new (and) advanced form of plagiarism in media and writing.”
“Plagiarism is something every media company has had to correct at some point,” Barton wrote. “That’s the ugly part of the job. But a company that is willing to correct (or literally write) these mistakes is reputable. So let’s consider this our lesson.”
The Cody Enterprise now has a system in place to capture AI-generated stories, and Barton said there will be “long conversations” at the newspaper about how unacceptable this technology is for writing articles.
“We will expect higher standards from our employees and we stand by that,” she wrote. “The community deserves the best and most authentic form of reporting and that is exactly what we want to provide.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cody Enterprise apologizes for reporter who used AI to write stories
