Ars Technica has fired senior AI reporter Benj Edwards following an outrage-sparking controversy involving AI-fabricated quotes.
  • tidderuuf@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6417·
    4 months ago

    I’m not taking all the credit but I do hope those people who didn’t believe me in the past could rightfully take this comment, print it, pull down their pants and shove it up their ass.

    It’s time to hold journalism with a higher standard and this idea that “well they do alright” and “it was only once” is bullshit sliding into madness.

    Just the facts, folks.

    • just_another_person@lemmy.worldEnglish
      307·
      4 months ago

      The problem with your attitude towards this is that these companies are forcing “AI” down everyone’s throat. It’s a requirement now to churn out more bullshit than humanly possible.

      This person was simply fired because they didn’t catch the false information, and not because they used the tools forced upon them.

      • ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        61·
        4 months ago

        Sifting through information to find out what’s true and what’s not, before presenting it to the public, is a pretty crucial task and ability for an actual journalist though. It is probably one of the most important parts of their job to verify the correctness of their sources and what they write regardless of whether or not they use AI tools.

        • just_another_person@lemmy.worldEnglish
          42·
          4 months ago

          Then maybe they shouldn’t be using these tools in the first place. Other Conde Nast employees have already been blowing the whistle about this, which is funny because they sued all the AI companies for stealing content.

          Whether there is a news article about it or not, these shitty tools are being shoved down everyone’s throats. From developers, to authors.

          • ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            2·
            4 months ago

            Then maybe they shouldn’t be using these tools in the first place

            I absolutely agree, they should not write articles with LLMs. I’m just saying they’re not absolved of basic journalistic responsibility because they’re instructed to use LLM tools.

      • Fmstrat@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        4 months ago

        Absolutely not. Ars has a no AI policy, it’s the exact opposite. Guessing you are a nice little bot.

        • just_another_person@lemmy.worldEnglish
          12·
          4 months ago

          A fucking moron who runs around calling everything a bot when you disagree with whatever the topic is.

          It’s the new CyberTruck of online insecurity.

          Hope that’s “good” enough for you.

  • nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    41·
    4 months ago

    I would fire them and hope that they are blacklisted from ever working in journalism ever again

    • rodneylives@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      4 months ago

      I’ve interacted with Benj Edwards on social media for some time. He’s done lots of good work! He’s on (or maybe used to be on) Mastodon and Bluesky. He runs Vintage Computing and Gaming, and has written good articles for several prominent places. I’ve said as much in multiple forums, I feel like I’ve maybe been going on a crusade.

      I haven’t seen many others defending him. I’m really torn up over this. They had a weak moment. They were sick (I mean, literally.). A few other people, notably Cory Doctorow and Paul Ford, have written LLM-defending places. And the AI hype has been deafening.

      It’s amazing though, that so soon after he used AI, that it immediately hallucinated something job-ending. I knew it was really bad, but I didn’t know it was THAT bad. You get the sense, with so many people talking positively about it, that the hallucinations must be something that happens, what, maybe 5% of the time?

      To me, it seems like the kind of mistake that he should be able to apologize for, promise not to do it again, and move on. But we’ve all had our good will taken advantage of for so long by malicious actors, like how Gamergate was used as a wedge to push loathsome politics onto a legion of young males. It feels like we can’t give anyone the benefit of the doubt any more.

      I don’t know. I know I’m influenced by all the good work he’s done. I feel like that shouldn’t all be thrown away.

  • ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.worldEnglish
    98·
    4 months ago

    Obviously the use of a LLM was a terrible decision, but I think in this context we can also blame some country’s lack of sick pay.