The Inquirer Publishes a Fake Summer Reading List as Amy Poehler Debuts a Fake Philly Show

The Inquirer publishes a fake summer reading list as Amy Poehler debuts a fake Philly show

Sometimes news comes out that’s stranger than fiction … or, in this case, “faker” than fiction. There have been a couple media stories circulating today, including a summer reading list with recommendations of books by famous authors like Isabel Allende and a new, Philadelphia-based legal drama featuring cast members from “Parks and Recreation.” Sadly, both were made up.Billy Penn thought we would get to the bottom of things.   Fake Book Recs Th…

A syndicated supplement published in The Inquirer had AI-generated content, violating company policy

The list appeared in "a handful" of publications, including The Inquirer.

Readers outraged after AI-generated ‘summer reading list’ featuring fake novels appears in Chicago Sun-Times – Toronto Star’

Jeffrey Dvorkin, a Senior Fellow at Massey College and the former director of the Journalism program at the University of Toronto, said that when erroneous AI-generated articles are published, it “undermines the credibility of media organizations, making readers even more skeptical and suspicious of the media, which it can ill afford. ...This is just another nail in our reputation as providers of reliable information."

AI-generated summer reading list distributed with some national newspapers

Social media exploded this week when readers posted pictures of a summer reading guide recommending nonexistent titles by real authors. This premium article is available to paid subscribers of Jane's newsletter. Here's what subscribers get: Access to more than 3,000 premium articles on this site, all searchable Industry news that includes Jane’s reporting and analysis, sent via email once a wek Access to Jane’s private resource guides, continu…

Generative AI doesn’t have real books to recommend for your summer. Thankfully, we do.

Perhaps you’ve seen an article going around on social media about hot new books to read over the summer, published in the Chicago Sun-Times. For some reason, that article told you to read a number of books that don’t exist, by authors who do, and who were both baffled by and justifiably angry about the whole situation. That article, currently going viral for all the wrong reasons, was written by a freelancer who used AI to generate the list of r…