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A joint press investigation revealed the closure of the US newspaper South Florida Standard after it was discovered that all its correspondents are fake personalities generated by artificial intelligence. The site turned out to be part of a network of 18 fake media platforms run by a Philadelphia businessman.
One of the most high-profile digital media scandals in the United States has come to a close, with the South Florida Standard shutting down permanently after a joint investigation by the Florida Trip and the KCRW podcast revealed that all of its employees are fictitious figures designed with artificial intelligence technologies. The “Question Everything” survey showed that what was described as a “standalone, locally owned, digital newsletter” was not It is a fake front based on stolen content from other media organizations, with artificially generated selfies and fabricated biographies of alleged journalists. The investigation team, assisted by academic Casey Fréchette of the University of South Florida, successfully traced the shady digital network that had extended to other locations in South Carolina and California, including Charleston Sentinel and San Francisco Download, and linked them all to businessman Drew Chapin. Philadelphia-based Chapin, who runs the image management company Discoverability, has admitted to 18 similar AI-powered websites, revealing the amazing ease of creating these dummy platforms using a $10 domain and simple AI tools in less than 20 minutes. Media expert Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute warned of the seriousness of this phenomenon, stressing that those in charge of these operations “They don't care about the truth,” as this incident shows the increasing ease and low cost of creating disinformation platforms in the digital age.
Source: Al-Wehda Al-Arabia News Portal
