{"id":85813,"date":"2025-08-21T20:36:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T20:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/85813\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T20:36:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T20:36:07","slug":"wired-and-business-insider-remove-articles-by-ai-generated-freelancer-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/85813\/","title":{"rendered":"Wired and Business Insider remove articles by AI-generated \u2018freelancer\u2019 | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Multiple news organisations have taken down articles written by an alleged freelance journalist that now appear to have been generated by AI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Press Gazette reported<\/a> that at least six publications, including Wired and Business Insider, have removed articles from their websites in recent months after it was discovered that the stories \u2013 written under the name of Margaux Blanchard \u2013 were AI-generated.<\/p>\n

Wired published a story titled \u201cThey Fell in Love Playing Minecraft. Then the Game Became Their Wedding Venue\u201d in May. A few weeks later, the outlet took down the story, stating in an editor\u2019s note: \u201cAfter an additional review of the article \u2026 Wired editorial leadership has determined this article does not meet our editorial standards.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story cited <\/a>a \u201cJessica Hu\u201d, an alleged 34-year-old \u201cordained officiant based in Chicago\u201d who reportedly \u201cmade a name for herself as a \u2018digital celebrant\u2019, specialising in ceremonies across Twitch, Discord and VRChat\u201d, according to Press Gazette, which reviewed the Wired article.<\/p>\n

Both the Press Gazette and the Guardian were not able to verify the identity of Hu.<\/p>\n

Press Gazette further reported<\/a> that in April, Business Insider published two essays by Blanchard titled: \u201cRemote work has been the best thing for me as a parent but the worst as a person\u201d and \u201cI had my first kid at 45. I\u2019m financially stable and have years of life experience to guide me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Business Insider removed the articles after Press Gazette alerted the outlet over the authenticity of the author. Both article pages now feature a message saying that the stories were \u201cremoved because [they] didn\u2019t meet Business Insider\u2019s standards\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the Guardian, a Business Insider spokesperson said: \u201cWe have removed first-person essays that didn\u2019t meet Business Insider\u2019s standards and have since bolstered verification protocols.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Guardian has contacted Wired for comment.<\/p>\n

Press Gazette says<\/a> it was first alerted to the inauthenticity of Blanchard\u2019s articles by Jacob Furedi, editor of a new magazine called Dispatch. Furedi said that he received a pitch from Blanchard earlier this month about \u201cGravemont, a decommissioned mining town in rural Colorado that has been repurposed into one of the world\u2019s most secretive training grounds for death investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the pitch, which Furedi shared with Press Gazette, Blanchard wrote: \u201cI want to tell the story of the scientists, ex-cops, and former miners who now handle the dead daily \u2013 not as mourners, but as archivists of truth. I\u2019ll explore the ethical tightrope of using real human remains in staged environments, the shadow economy of body donations, and the emotional toll on those who make a living from simulated tragedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the right person for this because I\u2019ve reported on hidden training sites before, have clearance contacts in forensic circles, and know how to navigate sensitive, closed-off communities with empathy and discretion,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Furedi told the Press Gazette<\/a> that pitch sounded like it was generated by ChatGPT and couldn\u2019t find details about Gravemont. The Guardian has also not been able to verify details of the alleged town.<\/p>\n

Upon asking Blanchard how she discovered the town, she replied: \u201cI\u2019m not surprised you couldn\u2019t find much \u2013 Gravemont doesn\u2019t advertise itself. I first heard about it while interviewing a retired forensic pathologist for an unrelated piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

She went on to say: \u201cOver the next few months, I pieced together more through a mix of public records requests, conversations with former trainees, and hints buried in conference materials from forensic associations. None of them referred to it by name in print, but the details lined up. Eventually, I spoke with a former miner from the area who confirmed the site\u2019s transformation after the mine closure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those places that exists in the industry\u2019s collective memory, but just under the radar enough to evade coverage \u2013 which is exactly why I think it would resonate with Dispatch readers,\u201d Blanchard added.<\/p>\n

Furedi told Press Gazette <\/a>that despite the pitch seeming \u201cvery convincing\u201d, he knew she was \u201cbullshitting\u201d. He asked Blanchard for public record requests, about her standard rate and how long she planned to spend in the field.<\/p>\n

In response, Blanchard ignored Furedi\u2019s request to see public records requests and instead said she would \u201cideally spend 5-7 days on the ground\u201d and be paid around $670, Press Gazette reports.<\/p>\n

Last Friday, Furedi accused Blanchard via email of publishing false stories to which she has not responded. Press Gazette further reports that Blanchard has not responded to its own request for her to provide evidence that she is a real person.<\/p>\n

This incident of false AI-generated reporting follows a May error when the Chicago Sun-Times\u2019 Sunday paper ran a syndicated section with a fake reading list created by AI.<\/p>\n

Marco Buscaglia, a journalist who was working for King Features Syndicate, turned to AI to help generate the list, saying<\/a>: \u201cStupidly, and 100% on me, I just kind of republished this list that [an AI program] spit out \u2026 Usually, it\u2019s something I wouldn\u2019t do \u2026 Even if I\u2019m not writing something, I\u2019m at least making sure that I correctly source it and vet it and make sure it\u2019s all legitimate. And I definitely failed in that task.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in June, the Utah<\/a> court of appeals sanctioned<\/a> a lawyer after he was discovered to have used ChatGPT<\/a> for a filing he made in which he referenced a nonexistent court case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Multiple news organisations have taken down articles written by an alleged freelance journalist that now appear to have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-85813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}