{"id":36881,"date":"2023-12-15T18:04:50","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T18:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/sports-illustrated-publisher-fires-ceo-after-ai-scandal"},"modified":"2023-12-15T18:19:54","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T18:19:54","slug":"sports-illustrated-publisher-fires-ceo-after-ai-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/sports-illustrated-publisher-fires-ceo-after-ai-scandal","title":{"rendered":"Sports Illustrated publisher fires CEO after AI scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>The CEO of The Arena Group, publisher of Sports Illustrated, has been fired just weeks after the magazine was accused of publishing articles generated by artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Ross Levinsohn was terminated \u201cto improve the operational efficiency and revenue\u201d of the company, Arena Group said in a statement. It comes amid a wider purge of a number of senior executives at the company since the scandal broke.<\/p>\n

Manoj Bhargava will take over as CEO. But a spokesperson for Mr Bhargava \u2013 founder of the 5-Hour Energy drink \u2013 told the BBC that Mr Levinsohn\u2019s removal \u201chad absolutely nothing to do with the AI issue at all\u201d.<\/p>\n

He insisted that the move was about ongoing efforts to improve the company. But it comes after the Arena Group fired three of its major executives last week, including chief operating officer Andrew Kraft, media president Rob Barrett and corporate counsel Julie Fenster.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes a month after tech news outlet Futurism revealed Sports Illustrated had published several articles with fake author names and headshots from an AI-generated image website.<\/p>\n

The magazine removed the content but disputed the report\u2019s accuracy, while launching an internal investigation. Arena Group licensed the content from a third-party company, Advon Commerce, a company spokesperson said in a statement. Advon Commerce is an e-commerce company that works with retailers and publishers.<\/p>\n

In its statement last month, Arena Group claimed that Advon Commerce had assured them \u201cthat all of the articles in question were written and edited by humans\u201d and that the e-commerce firm regularly uses \u201ccounter-plagiarism and counter-AI software\u201d.<\/p>\n

As for the fake names, the group said writers were allowed to use pseudonyms \u201cin certain articles\u201d to protect their privacy. The brief statement from Arena Group announcing Mr Levinsohn\u2019s firing did not mention the scandal.<\/p>\n

This incident at Sports Illustrated comes as concern grows in the media world that generative artificial intelligence could cheaply replace journalists and potentially spread misinformation.<\/p>\n

Various newsrooms have experimented with AI or released guidelines for employees and audiences to explain their approach towards it. Some newsrooms have made headlines, however, after publishing AI articles that included errors or falsehoods.<\/p>\n

Others gained attention for not marking stories as AI generated. Numerous Sports Illustrated staff said on social media that they were appalled by the findings in Futurist\u2019s report, particularly as Arena Group has made large cuts to staff in recent years.<\/p>\n

In a statement at the time, the Sports Illustrated Union said \u201cthese practices violate everything we believe in about journalism\u201d. \u201cWe demand the company commit to adhering to basic journalistic standards, including not publishing computer-written stories by fake people,\u201d the union said on X.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. The CEO of The Arena Group, publisher of Sports Illustrated, has been fired just weeks after the magazine was accused of publishing articles generated by artificial intelligence. Ross Levinsohn was terminated \u201cto improve the operational efficiency and revenue\u201d of the company, Arena Group said in a statement. It comes amid a wider […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":36879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[233,246,245,910],"class_list":["post-36881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-sport"],"yoast_head":"\nSports Illustrated publisher fires CEO after AI scandal - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The CEO of The Arena Group, publisher of Sports Illustrated, has been fired just weeks after the magazine was accused of ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/sports-illustrated-publisher-fires-ceo-after-ai-scandal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sports Illustrated publisher fires CEO after AI scandal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The CEO of The Arena Group, publisher of Sports Illustrated, has been fired just weeks after the magazine was accused of ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/sports-illustrated-publisher-fires-ceo-after-ai-scandal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-15T18:04:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-15T18:19:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/12\/sm_1702651761.976105.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"530\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/sports-illustrated-publisher-fires-ceo-after-ai-scandal#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/sports-illustrated-publisher-fires-ceo-after-ai-scandal\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Sports Illustrated publisher fires CEO after AI scandal\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-15T18:04:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-15T18:19:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/sports-illustrated-publisher-fires-ceo-after-ai-scandal\"},\"wordCount\":461,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/sports-illustrated-publisher-fires-ceo-after-ai-scandal#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/12\/sm_1702651761.976105.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"Sport\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/sports-illustrated-publisher-fires-ceo-after-ai-scandal#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/sports-illustrated-publisher-fires-ceo-after-ai-scandal\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/sports-illustrated-publisher-fires-ceo-after-ai-scandal\",\"name\":\"Sports Illustrated publisher fires CEO after AI scandal - 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