Before the holiday season, Bridgeton, a town located in Southern New Jersey, was primarily recognized for housing the state’s second aquarium. However, an artificial intelligence-generated news report detailing a fictitious crime has potentially tainted its reputation.
The Bridgeton police revealed that an article on NewsBreak reporting a Christmas Day fatality within the city was entirely fabricated and has since been removed. The police department emphasized on Facebook that no such incident resembling the described events took place in or around Christmas, or even in recent memory for that matter. The article, which lacked an attributed author and disclosed the assistance of AI tools, serves as a cautionary example of the pitfalls of relying on automated content generation.
Despite efforts to verify the article’s contents, the swift deletion of the post from NewsBreak and the absence of online archives have hindered independent confirmation. Surrealism’s attempts to seek clarification from the website regarding the origin of the article have been met with uncertainty, especially considering the lack of response to similar inquiries from other sources like NJ.com.
This incident underscores the risks associated with the dissemination of AI-generated content, highlighting the potential for misinformation and the erosion of trust in media outlets. By prioritizing efficiency over accuracy, businesses opting for AI-driven content creation may inadvertently exacerbate existing skepticism towards the media industry, failing to address key issues or foster genuine innovation.
As the aftermath of ChatGPT’s discontinuation in late 2022 continues to reverberate through the media landscape, it is evident that the lessons from past technological missteps have yet to be fully absorbed by those in positions of influence.
