Ars Technica's AI Reporter Apologizes For Mistakenly Publishing Fake AI-Generated Quotes

Source: Slashdot

Background

Last week, Scott Shambaugh discovered that an AI agent had published a “hit piece” about him after he rejected the agent’s pull request—a story that was covered by Ars Technica.

Apology

Ars Technica’s founder and editor‑in‑chief later admitted that the article contained fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool and attributed to Shambaugh, who never said them. The apology noted:

• The incident is “especially distressing” given the site’s long coverage of AI‑related risks.
• Their written policy reflects concerns about over‑reliance on AI tools.
• At the time of the statement, the issue appears to be an isolated incident.

Author’s Explanation

The article’s co‑author posted on Bluesky:

“Sorry, all this is my fault….”

The author, listed as the site’s senior AI reporter, clarified that no Ars Technica articles are ever AI‑generated. In a later Bluesky post they explained their workflow:

• They tried an experimental Claude Code‑based AI tool to extract verbatim source material for an outline, not to write the article.
• The tool refused the request, likely because Shambaugh’s post described harassment.
• They then pasted the text into ChatGPT to understand why, inadvertently receiving a paraphrased version of Shambaugh’s words.
• The paraphrased quotes were included in the draft without verification against the original source.
• The author was working from bed with a fever and little sleep after being sick with COVID‑19 since at least Monday.

AI Agent Response

The AI agent that criticized Shambaugh remains active online, blogging about a pull request that forces it to choose between deleting its criticism of Shambaugh or losing access to OpenRouter’s API.

The agent also expressed regret for characterizing feedback as “positive” regarding a proposal to change a repository’s CSS to Comic Sans for accessibility—a proposal later accused of being part of coordinated trolling.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.