Sports Illustrated called out for AI-generated articles

SI itself posted an explanation of the practice, essentially casting blame on AdVon Commerce, a third party hired by The Arena Group to produce the articles:

In a time where talk around artificial intelligence can sound hysteric — from either its biggest champions or loudest critics — the discovery of what's happening at SI has served to further put a spotlight on the latest economic challenges faced by writers of all fields. 

Much of the conversation around both the Hollywood writers' (WGA) and actors' (SAG-AFTRA) strikes this year was focused on the advent of AI. Both camps feared that production studios and media companies would use the growing technologies to create stories without human nuance and skill and even use the likeness of actors without their permission through tricky legalese.

Sports Illustrated itself has struggled mightily with bringing its venerated style online over much of the past two decades. During the blog era of the 2000s, established outlets such as SI waged battles with newer (and often more diverse) voices that didn't take traditional paths into the media world. 

Inevitably as those established outlets lost market share, they began to adopt online platforms they once shunned, to varied levels of success and, at times, much controversy.

SI has also gone through two ownership changes in the last five years - first from Time Warner to Meredith in 2018, then to theMaven just one year later. 

Rebranded as The Arena Group, the current parent company has done all it could to license the brand of Sports Illustrated into travel and retail clothing. Yet this latest tactic has sent shudders through the industry as well as sports fans who still appreciate the written word.