Gannett denies that its marketing partner used artificial intelligence for its shopping website

abcnews.go.com:

The media company Gannett denied that it published material created by artificial intelligence on a shopping website that it owns

NEW YORK — The media company Gannett denied Thursday that it published material created by artificial intelligence on a shopping website that it owns, although it acknowledged some of the content produced by a marketing partner “did not meet our editorial standards.”

Some employees at Reviewed, a website that offers product guides, said they noticed last Friday that articles began to appear on the site that were of questionable quality and written by writers whose bylines they didn’t know, said Jaime Carrillo, a senior writer and shop steward for Reviewed's employee union, NewsGuild of New York.

Two of the articles began in a similar fashion. One said: “Before buying a scuba mask, there are several important factors to consider. The most crucial aspect of a scuba mask is the fit.” Another said: “When shopping for a tumbler, there are many factors to consider. The first thing you should think about is the material it's made of.”

Carrillo said: “It you've worked in writing enough, you can kind of tell if something is written by a robot.”

The episode is part of a dispute involving a union representing employees at Reviewed.

The union members had a hard time tracking down who the journalists were behind the new bylines and Carrillo suggested some did not actually exist. Gannett said the stories had real writers and were not generated by artificial intelligence.

“The Reviewed content referenced was created by third-party freelancers hired by a marketing agency partner, not AI,” said Lark-Marie Anton, Gannett spokeswoman. “The pages were deployed without the actual affiliate disclaimers and did not