Media outlets forced to delete AI-generated content containing numerous falsehoods

Business Insider and Wired have deleted multiple articles attributed to freelance journalist Margaux Blanchard after allegations emerged that the pieces were actually written by an artificial intelligence (AI) bot and contained false details.

Blanchard’s writings were published by a number of US and UK publications, including feature stories about couples marrying in video games and a first-person essay on having a child at 45. The fake identity of Blanchard came to light, however, when Blanchard emailed a pitch to Dispatch editor Jacob Furedi regarding “Gravemont, a decommissioned mining town in rural Colorado that has been repurposed into one of the world’s most secretive training grounds for death investigation.”

Furedi told Press Gazette the story was “absolute bollocks,” noting that Gravemont does not exist and Blanchard could not produce any of the public records she claimed to have.

At least six publications have run Blanchard’s work, much of which included unverifiable details. Wired was the first to delete one of the articles, which described supposed couples getting married in Minecraft. The piece detailed a so-called “digital celebrant” in Chicago named Jessica Hu, a person with no verifiable online presence.

“If anyone should be able to catch an AI scammer, it’s Wired…Unfortunately one got through,” Wired admitted in an article addressing the incident. The outlet said it grew suspicious when Blanchard insisted on being paid by PayPal or check and refused to provide personal documentation. Tests with third-party AI detection tools flagged the writing as inauthentic.

“I think she could get away with writing an op-ed for a politics site, she could get away with writing some AI slop about mental health for Business Insider, and perhaps even to an extent she could write about the world of online for Wired,” Furedi said to Press Gazette. “But if it’s about going to a place and speaking to people, you can’t fake that.”

In April, Business Insider had published two personal essays under Blanchard’s name, including one about working remotely as a parent and another about having her first child at 45. Both have since been removed.

“We have removed first-person essays that didn’t meet Business Insider’s standards and have since bolstered verification protocols,” a spokesperson told the New York Post.