CNET has dug itself into an AI-generated pit. Earlier this month, the tech-focused website was caught quietly publishing AI-generated articles without disclosing the development to readers. Then, the site was embroiled in potential legal trouble when it came to light that a multitude of errors and plagiarism were discovered in the bot’s work by another tech outlet, Futurism. Articleswere stitched together by stealing bits from other media outlets, swapping words with synonyms to create the illusion that they were original ideas, the publication reported. “The CNET example is noteworthy because whatever AI they were using was not drawing from the entirety of the internet and carefully coming up with a new mosaic, but rather just lifting more or less word for word from existing stories,” said Washington and Lee University Professor Jeff Schatten, according to Futurism. The site announced on Friday that it will halt the use of AI to artificially generate stories “for now,” according to The Verge.
