The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
AI-Hallucinated "Summer Reading List" in Hearst-Supplied Insert Published by Chicago Sun Times and Philadelphia Inquirer
Axios (Justin Kaufmann & Scott Rosenberg) reports:
The Sun-Times is feeling the heat after it printed a summer reading list Sunday, citing multiple non-existent titles by real authors — which was partially produced by AI….
The list begins with a nonexistent "novel by the 'beloved Chilean American author' Isabel Allende titled 'Tidewater Dreams,'" "ostensibly a 'climate fiction novel' that explores how one family confronts rising seas levels while uncovering long-buried secrets.'" (NPR [Elizabeth Blair] notes that "Only five of the 15 titles on the list are real.") Axios adds that "The insert also appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer," and
The Sun-Times says it licensed the content from King Features, a unit of Hearst, which claims to be the world's largest lifestyle publisher.
As a large language model, I can't feel vicarious embarrassment, but this seems unfortunate for all involved.
