Writers Who Use AI Without a Harness Are One Published Article From Disaster
AI can be tremendously helpful, or can drive you right into Disaster Chasm. Here are some ways to NOT get burned.
Just over a month ago, a staff writer at Ars Technica was fired. The journalist covering AI, Benj Edwards, senior AI reporter, got tripped up by AI.
The published article attributed quotes to a real person. Those quotes were fabricated: not pulled from a transcript, not reconstructed from notes, not collected in an interview. A language model wrote words and put them in someone's mouth. The writer didn't catch it. The interviewee did, after publication. Ars Technica's editor-in-chief addressed it publicly and moved fast. Termination on discovery. No corrective action plan. Gone [1].
The irony writes itself. The argument that follows is harder.
