The Second Reckoning Over AI Writing

A book containing more than half a dozen fake or misattributed quotes was linked to AI errors. The author initially took responsibility and investigated what went wrong, but later blamed ChatGPT for “fucked up the book.” The author said AI tools were used as a resource and conversation partner while working on the book, and he struggled to reconcile AI’s capabilities with hallucinations, including an unverified imaginary quote attributed to Kara Swisher. He described feeling “seduced and betrayed” by AI and suggested it might have undermined him. The week also brought broader scrutiny of human authorship, including claims about AI use by other prize-winning writers and follow-up statements from a prize administrator.

"“Depending on your paranoia level, it's either quirky or evil or sneaky,” he said. Rosenbaum, a media entrepreneur and the executive director of the Sustainable Media Center, said he came to rely on AI tools as both a resource and a conversation partner while he worked on the book (which he also notes in the book's acknowledgements). During our conversation, Rosenbaum struggled to reconcile AI's sometimes staggering capacities with its penchant for head-scratching hallucinations—such as an imaginary quote from the tech journalist Kara Swisher that he included in the book without verifying it."

"“ChatGPT ‘fucked up the book,’” Rosenbaum said. Earlier this week, The New York Times reported that The Future of Truth, Rosenbaum's much-discussed book about how AI shapes reality, contains more than half a dozen fake or misattributed quotes. Rosenbaum pinned some of them on his use of AI. He claimed responsibility for the errors and said he was investigating what went wrong. By the time I spoke with him on Thursday, though, he was pointing his finger elsewhere."

"“seduced and betrayed” by AI, suggesting at one point that it might have undermined him on purpose. Rosenbaum said he came to rely on AI tools as both a resource and a conversation partner while he worked on the book. During the conversation, he struggled to reconcile AI's sometimes staggering capacities with its penchant for head-scratching hallucinations. He cited an imaginary quote from the tech journalist Kara Swisher that he included without verifying it."

Read at The Atlantic