On Monday, the CEO of the family company affiliated with Sports Illustrated was terminated from his position.
The firing occurred amidst speculation regarding the publication’s utilization of AI-generated content attributed to fictitious authors, although a direct link to the restructuring was not immediately evident.
Ross Levinsohn, who served as the CEO of The Arena Group, was relieved of his duties, with Manoj Bhargava stepping in as the interim chief executive officer. The company’s official statement mentioned that the board had convened to address operational performance and profitability issues, without divulging further details.
Following Levinsohn’s tenure since 2020, which included prior leadership roles at Tribune Publishing, Fox Interactive, and Yahoo, major changes ensued within the organization. Operations leader and COO Andrew Kraft, media chairman Rob Barrett, and legal counsel Julie Fenster were all ousted from their positions the following week.
Reports have surfaced indicating that the profiles featured on various Sports Illustrated websites were generated using AI technology, extending to the author images, allegedly sourced from platforms offering AI-generated visuals, as reported by Futurism.
The acquisition of The Street.com from co-founder Jim Cramer in 2019 by Arena Group revealed interconnected information, suggesting a broader pattern. An instance highlighted by Men’s Journal, another publication under the Arena Group umbrella, involved an AI-generated health article that was criticized for its inaccuracies, prompting significant backlash.
The union representative for the newspaper staff expressed dismay over these revelations, reflecting broader concerns within the industry.
In response to the allegations, a spokesperson for Arena Group clarified that the contentious articles were product reviews sourced from an external entity, AdVon Commerce. AdVon’s e-commerce content was featured across various Arena sites, with the company emphasizing oversight of its partners and ongoing quality assessments.
AdVon Commerce maintained that their content underwent human curation and editing, adhering to stringent guidelines incorporating anti-plagiarism measures and AI tools. Notably, to safeguard the anonymity of artists, authors at times utilized pseudonyms or pen names.
Subsequently, Arena Group and AdVon have terminated their collaboration following the unfolding developments.
