how it happened
- whocontent vendorfake author names
- the gaptrusted brand bylinesno one checked
- the resultreported November 2023articles removed
what everyone assumed
A byline is a person taking responsibility. The reasonable belief, built over decades of reading, is that a name and a face on an article mean a real writer with a real history produced it, and that on a brand you trust the signal is doubly safe. Readers do not interrogate an author photo. The whole point of the photo is that you do not have to.
what happened
For a stretch of time the product articles ran under these authors, each with a name, a face, and an invented biography, and readers took them at face value because there was no reason not to. The bylines did the quiet work bylines do, lending a human signature to content, while the people they named had no presence anywhere else online. As the reporting began, some of the named authors disappeared from the site, and their articles reappeared under different names, who similarly could not be found and whose faces were also being sold on AI-headshot marketplaces.
step by step
- product articles run under invented authorsNames, faces and biographies, with no presence elsewhere.the assumption breaks here
- headshots come from AI marketplacesAuthors vanish and reappear under other names.
- November 2023the practice is reportedThe publisher blames a third-party content supplier.
- the articles are removed
how it surfaced
In November 2023 the practice was reported, with the fabricated authors, the purchased headshots, and the invented bios laid out side by side. Sports Illustrated’s publisher said the articles were licensed content from a third-party company, that the third party had used pen or pseudonymous names in certain articles, and that it strongly condemned the practice. The articles were removed from the site.
The signals that make content feel human, a name, a face, a bio, are now things that can be manufactured as easily as the content itself.
A byline confirms only that someone wanted it to look like a person wrote this, which is a different fact from a person having written it.
picture it at a company like yours
The company here is made up. The other two paths are not: they happened, and each links to the story.
- in this storythe day it mattersA journalist finds the authors and their photos were generated.what it costs youYour readers' trust takes the hit, whoever wrote the articles.
- or it goes like thisit happenedMoffatt v. Air Canada, 2024howA customer-facing bot promises something your policy does not offer.what leavesmoney you now owewho ends up with itthe customer, backed by a tribunal
- or it goes like thisit happenedDPD chatbot, 2024howA bot is talked into mocking your company and the chat is shared.what leavesyour reputation, in screenshotswho ends up with ita million strangers in a day
sources
- Futurism, "Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated Writers," November 27, 2023.
- CNN Business, "Sports Illustrated deletes articles published under fake author names and AI-generated profile photos," November 27, 2023.
- The Globe and Mail, "Sports Illustrated's alleged AI articles, complete with fake writer headshots, shock industry," November 2023.
your turn
what you can do about it
this week
Take one piece of outside content published under your name and try to confirm the author exists, and decide who is accountable when the answer is uncertain.
Some content on your site or in your channels arrives through a partner, an agency, or a syndication deal, attributed to a person you have never met and have no way to reach. The question the quiet months ask is whether anyone on your side has verified that the authors and assets in licensed content are real, or whether your brand is vouching for names it has never checked.
go deeper
if you're not sure where to start
Run the offboarding checklist on one leaver. It covers every account and token to close when someone leaves.
open the checklist →