Sports Illustrated publisher fires CEO after allegedly getting caught using AI-generated articles

The publisher of Sports Illustrated announced Monday that it had fired its CEO, Ross Levinsohn. The parting of ways comes after a scandal in which the iconic sports magazine allegedly published AI-generated content from fake authors.

A spokesperson for The Arena Group, which publishes Sports Illustrated as well as lifestyle brands like Men's Journal and Parade, declined to specify why Levinsohn had been fired, saying the decision was made to "improve the operational efficiency and revenue of the company." However, Levinsohn's termination comes weeks after an investigation by tech website Futurism alleged that Sports Illustrated had published articles from authors generated by artificial intelligence. 

Futurism's report claimed that one author on Sports Illustrated's website had "no social media presence and no publishing history," and that his profile photo was "for sale on a website that sells AI-generated headshots." At least some portions of the articles themselves were also written by AI, sources told Futurism. "The content is absolutely AI-generated," one source said, "no matter how much they say that it's not."

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After the report was published, the author's pages and articles disappeared from Sports Illustrated's website. In a statement responding to the investigation, The Arena Group said it was "not accurate" to say the articles were AI-generated, and that the articles in question were licensed from a third-party company. Futurism responded to this statement, saying it didn't address "the core allegation of our story: that Sports Illustrated published content from nonexistent writers with AI-generated headshots."

While it's unclear if Levinsohn's firing was a direct result of the AI scandal, several other C-suite executives at The Arena Group also lost their jobs. This includes COO Andrew Kraft, media president Rob Barrett and corporate counsel Julie Fenster, CNN reported. The scandal marks a fall from grace for the decades-old magazine, perhaps best known for its annual swimsuit editions.