USA Today's publisher had to update all of the sports posts its AI reporter botched

A week after being outed for stealthily using AI to produce high school sports reports and publicly "pausing" the project, mega-publisher Gannett has reportedly had to recheck each and every post the AI had written. Did we really learn nothing from CNET's ignoble AI escapades in January?  

Gannett operates a number of regional and national publications including USA Today, The Arizona Republic and The Detroit Free Press. The company devised its "Lede AI" as a means of automating the droll work of summarizing the box scores of local high school sports leagues — a task the AI proved wholly incapable of. One such article read:

The Hardin County Tigers defeated the Memphis Business Execs 48-12 in a Tennessee high school football game on Friday. Hardin County scored early and often to roll over Memphis Business 48-12 in a Tennessee high school football matchup.

"High school reporting is different from covering college or professional sports," On anonymous Gannett sports writer told Yahoo News. "And high school reporting can go underappreciated, but it's extremely important. You're covering a community."  

"You're not writing for as big of an audience, but you're writing for a very, very specific one," they added. "Family members — uncles, parents, people who care that your story has their kids' names. They're looking for keepsakes, things they can remember from their kids' high school career."

In response to the criticism, Gannett has elected to "pause" its use of the AI for the time being though the company made no mention of abandoning its use entirely. The company has also reportedly rechecked and updated every AI-written post for factual accuracy. The blurb above now simply reads: "The Hardin County Tigers defeated the Memphis Business Execs 48-12 in a Tennessee high school football game on Friday."

Gannett's dalliance with AI writers is the latest in a growing industry trend that has seen Buzzfeed shutter its newsroom entirely in favor of AI-generated content, Google develop a genAI for writing news posts and Apple build a foundational rival to ChatGPT. Even the AP is adapting its approach to accommodate the new technology.    

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/usa-todays-publisher-had-to-update-all-of-the-sports-posts-its-ai-reporter-botched-215915908.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/usa-todays-publisher-had-to-update-all-of-the-sports-posts-its-ai-reporter-botched-215915908.html?src=rss
Created 2y | Sep 6, 2023, 10:40:26 PM


Login to add comment

Other posts in this group

Framework pauses some US laptop sales due to tariffs

Consumer electronics brand Framework a

Apr 7, 2025, 11:50:04 PM | Engadget
Waymo has 'no plans' to sell ads to riders based on camera data

Rumors circulated today that robotaxi company Waymo might use data from vehicles' interior cameras to train AI and sell targeted ads to riders. However, the company has tried to quell concerns, ins

Apr 7, 2025, 11:50:03 PM | Engadget
Switch 2 game-key cards won't be tied to your Nintendo account

Players are gearing up for the arrival of the

Apr 7, 2025, 9:30:13 PM | Engadget
The White House has reportedly settled on an explanation for how 'Signalgate' happened

After an internal investigation, The White House has come up with a likely explanation for how Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was included in a Signal chat filled w

Apr 7, 2025, 9:30:12 PM | Engadget
2025 Hugo Award game finalists include Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Dragon Age: The Veilguard

The Hugo Awards began honoring video games for the first time back in 2021. This wee

Apr 7, 2025, 7:10:22 PM | Engadget
How to use lossless audio on the AirPods Max

When the AirPods Max arrived in late 2020, there wasn’t much spatial audio content for Ap

Apr 7, 2025, 7:10:21 PM | Engadget