Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The firing of Ross Levinsohn was intended to “improve the company’s operational efficiency and revenue,” the board says, two weeks after the fake authors were exposed
Arena Group, publisher of Sports Illustrated, fired the magazine's CEO shortly after it was revealed that Sports Illustrated had published articles by fake authors with AI-generated headshots and biographies.
Arena Group's board of directors announced Monday that CEO Ross Levinsohn's employment has been terminated and Manoj Bhargava has been named interim CEO. The board said it had followed a meeting on measures to “improve the company’s operational efficiency and sales.”
The press release made no mention of the November AI scandal, which was fueled by an investigative report published by science and technology news publication Futurism.
Sports Illustrated is accused of publishing articles written by AI
Among the fake profiles uncovered by Futurism was that of the alleged author “Sora Tanaka,” who claims to be a product reviewer. The page says: “Sora has always been a fitness guru and enjoys trying different foods and drinks. Ms. Tanaka is excited to bring her fitness and nutrition knowledge to the product review team and promises to bring you only the best of the best.”
Tanaka is not a real person.
Arena Group, which acquired Sports Illustrated in 2019, denied the allegations and said the articles in question obtained commercial content from an outside advertising company, AdVon Commerce.
A spokesman for Arena Group wrote in a opinion at the time: “An article was published today claiming that Sports Illustrated published AI-generated articles. According to our initial investigation, this is not correct.
“A number of AdVons e-commerce items ran on certain Arena websites. We continually monitor our partners and were in the midst of a review when these allegations were made. AdVon has assured us that all of the articles in question were written and edited by humans… However, we have learned that AdVon has had authors use a pseudonym or pseudonym in certain articles to protect the author's privacy – actions we strongly condemn – and which we are removing We will not publish the content while our internal investigation continues, and we have since terminated the partnership.”
The company severed ties with AdVon and removed its content from Arena websites.
First published in 1954, Sports Illustrated is also known for its swimsuit editions, which often feature covers of models, athletes, and other celebrities in bikinis. But as Futurism noted, it also once published pieces by famous writers like William Faulkner and John Updike.
After a round of layoffs earlier this year, Levinsohn hinted that Sports Illustrated would integrate AI into its journalism, but said it would never replace journalism.
“While AI will never replace journalism, reporting, or writing and editing a story, rapidly improving AI technologies can create business value for our brands and partners,” Levinsohn said in February.
Last week, Arena terminated the employment of operations president and COO Andrew Kraft, media president Rob Barrett and management consultant Julie Fenster.
Bhargava is the founder of the company behind the 5-Hour Energy Drink product.
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