[HN Gopher] Arena Group fires CEO in wake of Sports Illustrated ...
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Arena Group fires CEO in wake of Sports Illustrated AI articles
scandal
Author : dpflan
Score : 61 points
Date : 2023-12-12 16:42 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| dpflan wrote:
| HN Post about the spotted article(s) 2 weeks ago:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38436516
|
| And wow, the new interim CEO: """ Bhargava is the founder of the
| company behind the 5-Hour Energy Drink product. """
| mistrial9 wrote:
| I have heard that guy speak - he does seem to show some
| leadership quality and also business integrity to some extent.
| give him a chance :-)
| dpflan wrote:
| At least 5-hours tenure or units of 5-hours? ;)
| 1123581321 wrote:
| I also have a positive impression of him, from past
| interviews. Seems relatively humble. I've never tried the
| product.
| rchaud wrote:
| He's the majority shareholder of Arena Group, SI's parent
| company. Makes sense to have him as interim. Not sure why they
| left that out.
| dpflan wrote:
| Crucial info, thank you.
| hyggetrold wrote:
| _> Bhargava is the founder of the company behind the 5-Hour
| Energy Drink product._
|
| I'm not a fan of 5-hour energy but I heard Bhargava interviewed
| on a podcast and he seems like an interesting and unusual
| person. He spent 5-7 years in a Buddhist monastery I think? In
| any case, got a good impression of him.
| saintkaye wrote:
| The pub was failing and the CEO took an innovation risk that in
| its near outcome changes the economics of a dying business. He
| should be admired not fired.
| mvdtnz wrote:
| He broke the trust of his readers and his board.
| jjulius wrote:
| >He should be admired not fired.
|
| That depends entirely upon one's definition of "admirable".
| Personally, if the act requires one to be deceitful (eg, lying
| about the fact that your writers aren't writers), then that's
| not very admirable at all to me. If that's what _you_ find
| admirable, well... alrighty then.
| test098 wrote:
| nobody wants "innovation risks" when it comes to truth and
| ethics in journalism.
| fullshark wrote:
| I'd agree IF he didn't pretend the AI written articles were
| actually written by humans with fabricated biographies.
| spaceman_2020 wrote:
| Who ratted him out? Or could the readers tell?
| CharlesW wrote:
| TFA answers this in paragraphs 3-4.
| akprasad wrote:
| Quoted:
|
| > The release did not mention the AI scandal from November,
| which was spurred by an investigative report published by the
| science and technology news publication Futurism. Earlier
| this year, a round of layoffs hit the magazine shortly after
| the Arena Group's CEO and chairman, Ross Levinsohn, announced
| the company's incorporation of AI. Sports Illustrated accused
| of publishing articles written by AI Read more
|
| > Among fake profiles uncovered by Futurism was that of
| purported author "Sora Tanaka" which claims she is a product
| reviewer. The page said: "Sora has always been a fitness
| guru, and loves to try different foods and drinks. Ms Tanaka
| is thrilled to bring her fitness and nutritional expertise to
| the Product Reviews Team, and promises to bring you nothing
| but the best of the best."
|
| > Tanaka is not a real person.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Tanaka is saving her money for finger reduction and ear
| balancing surgery.
| nuz wrote:
| They were using stylegan faces for the profiles. It's pretty
| obvious. (Had they not used those they probably would have
| gotten away with it though.)
| darth_avocado wrote:
| More than that, does it matter? What difference does it make,
| considering that most content created these days is mediocre
| opinion pieces.
| bko wrote:
| 70 years ago there was a job for someone to stand in an elevator
| and press a button for the rider.
|
| Today we have jobs for people to rearticulate box scores.
|
| If a computer can do it adequately it should be done by a
| computer. I don't want to bring back the button pusher and I'm
| okay with ai authors. But they really shouldn't lie about it
| genedan wrote:
| There are still elevators like that in the Fine Arts Building
| in Chicago. In addition to the elevators, it's a great place to
| be if you're a musician. There are studios, practice rooms, and
| musical instrument shops too.
| bobthecowboy wrote:
| > If a computer can do it adequately it should be done by a
| computer
|
| Wasn't there recently some entirely AI "musician"? I'm
| guessing the person you're replying to doesn't see an ongoing
| need for musicians either.
| vlovich123 wrote:
| > But they really shouldn't lie about it
|
| If you can't tell then what's the problem? If you can what's
| the problem?
|
| I have bigger problems with everyday lies that already happen
| that are treated as "normal". For example, advertising a price
| cut as if there's a discount by raising the everyday price and
| discounting to the previous everyday price, using
| celebrities/influencers to promote products, paying for product
| reviews in some way, etc etc.
| longbrass wrote:
| And these lies are not something that AI can be trusted to
| reveal, but a journalist can.
| vlovich123 wrote:
| Ummm... what? Can you point to one major publication that
| is trying to cover this? Media corporations can control the
| narrative by controlling who they hire. It's more expensive
| but they've been doing it for a long time so there's
| institutional knowledge. Also, these same companies make
| their money on advertising so explain to me why you'd trust
| them to go after their sole remaining revenue stream?
| rchaud wrote:
| > 70 years ago there was a job for someone to stand in an
| elevator and press a button for the rider. Today we have jobs
| for people to rearticulate box scores.
|
| You might need such an assistant to summarize a Sports
| Illustrated issue; doesn't seem like you have any familiarity
| with it.
| dougb5 wrote:
| The article goes on to contradict itself, saying that Arena cites
| different reasons for the firing, and also that it denies the
| articles were "AI-generated" in the first place (the explanation
| they give is pseudonymous contractors). The headline would seem
| to be technically accurate but wildly misleading.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Not their fault! The reasons for the firing and the denial were
| AI-generated.
| Doctor_Fegg wrote:
| Levinsohn has a colourful history. Per Wikipedia:
|
| > From 2001 to 2005, Levinsohn was senior vice president and
| general manager at Fox Sports Interactive Media, a division of
| News Corporation.[9] In late 2004, he was named president of Fox
| Interactive Media and oversaw a controversial, and arguably
| fraudulent, acquisition of MySpace for $580 million.[10]
| Levinsohn resigned from News Corp. in November 2006 and was
| replaced by his cousin.[11]
|
| > Levinsohn led Yahoo for two months as interim CEO in 2012.
| After the board of directors passed him over for the permanent
| CEO position, hiring Google executive Marissa Mayer, Levinsohn
| left the company.[18]
|
| > In 2014, Levinsohn became executive chairman of Scout Media, a
| sports digital media network.[20] The firm filed for Chapter 11
| bankruptcy protection in 2016, seeking approval to sell what
| remained of the business at auction.[21][22] Levinsohn and
| Heckman were named as defendants in a shareholder lawsuit filed
| in 2017, in federal court.[23]
|
| > On 21 August 2017, Levinsohn was named the publisher and CEO of
| the Los Angeles Times by tronc, replacing Davan Maharaj.[24]
| Levinsohn was placed on unpaid leave in January 2018, after
| reports of two sexual harassment lawsuits, 'frat house' behavior
| and questionable decisions on the job from interviews with 26
| former colleagues and associates.[27][28] A law firm hired by
| Tronc to investigate the sexual harassment claims found no
| wrongdoing after a three-week investigation.[26][29]
|
| The Guardian article is a bit handwavy about the AI connection
| but I don't think there's any evidence that this led to
| Levinsohn's undoing. Maven/Arena has been a... challenging
| company for some time.
| dpflan wrote:
| Thanks for perspective, what do you make of the other noted
| departures?
|
| """ Last week Arena terminated the employment of operations
| president and COO Andrew Kraft, media president Rob Barrett,
| and corporate counsel Julie Fenster. """
| floren wrote:
| I assume leadership at other publications will learn from this --
| learn that you should take greater care not to get _caught_
| publishing AI articles.
| khazhoux wrote:
| The number of execs that got canned suggests this was not about
| AI articles.
| madamelic wrote:
| It does strike me as ironic that they fired him after a meeting
| about cutting costs and increasing operating efficiencies.
|
| I would guess AI authors would do both. There has to be more to
| the story for sure.
| ProllyInfamous wrote:
| Was it, rather, about AI Executives?
|
| Cause I BELIEVE in the future.
|
| -Common B. Citizen
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