[Eugene Volokh] 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.

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