The publisher of the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf and the Irish Independent has suspended one of its senior journalists after he admitted using AI to \u201cwrongly put words into people\u2019s mouths\u201d.<\/p>\n
Peter Vandermeersch, the former head of the Irish operations at Mediahuis, said he \u201cfell into the trap of hallucinations\u201d \u2013 the term for AI-generated errors<\/a> \u2013 when using the technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n Vandermeersch, a fellow of \u201cjournalism and society\u201d at the European publishing group, has been suspended from his role.<\/p>\n The experienced journalist said he had summarised reports using AI tools such as ChatGPT<\/a>, Perplexity and Google\u2019s NotebookLM, and not checked whether the quotes from those summaries were accurate. He subsequently published them in his Substack newsletter.<\/p>\n The errors were highlighted by an investigation by one of Mediahuis\u2019s own titles<\/a>, NRC, where Vandermeersch had been editor-in-chief in the 2010s. NRC alleged Vandermeersch had published \u201cdozens\u201d of quotes that were false and that seven quoted individuals in his posts said they had not made the statements attributed to them.<\/p>\n \u201cI wrongly put words into people\u2019s mouths, when I should have presented them as paraphrases. In some cases, it reflected my interpretation of their words. That was not just careless \u2013 it was wrong,\u201d Vandermeersch wrote in a Substack post<\/a> headlined \u201cI am admitting my mistake\u201d.<\/p>\n Vandermeersch added: \u201cIt is particularly painful that I made precisely the mistake I have repeatedly warned colleagues about: these language models are so good that they produce irresistible quotes you are tempted to use as an author. Of course, I should have verified them. The necessary \u2018human oversight\u2019, which I consistently advocate, fell short.\u201d<\/p>\n Vandermeersch\u2019s Press and Democracy blog writes regularly about \u201cthe vital connection between a free press and a healthy democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n In a statement, the Mediahuis group\u2019s chief executive, Gert Ysebaert, said: \u201cAt Mediahuis we apply strict rules for the use of AI, where diligence, human oversight and transparency are essential. The fact that these principles were not followed runs counter to the standards we uphold and to our commitment to readers that we stand for reliable journalism. We are discussing this with Peter Vandermeersch and have decided to temporarily suspend him from his role as fellow.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n Mediahuis has also removed a number of articles written by Vandermeersch from the Irish Independent website.<\/p>\n