The list appeared in 'a handful' of publications, including The Inquirer.
The syndication company that produced a 56-page feature supplement published by The Inquirer last week acknowledged Tuesday that some of the content, which included nonexistent book recommendations, was AI generated.
Gabriel Escobar, The Inquirer’s editor and senior vice president, said that using artificial intelligence to produce content is a “violation of our own internal policies and a serious breach.”He added, “We are looking at ways to improve the vetting of content in these supplements going forward,” while also making it clear that Inquirer news staff is not involved. Though The Inquirer name is on the cover, the newsroom staff had no involvement in the editing or production of the “Heat Index” supplement, distributed by Kings Features, a syndicate that for decades has provided popular comics and features to publications across the country, including The Inquirer. In a statement, King Features said that it also has a strict AI policy. It said the “Heat Index” was the work of a “freelance content creator” who did not disclose the use of AI. The company will no longer work with the creator, it said.The person who assembled the package for Hearst did not respond to an email request for comment. The Inquirer published “Heat Index” in its Thursday, May 15, print edition and the online e-edition. It has since been removed from the publishing system.That list included the Chicago Sun-Times, where the book recommendations generated considerable social-media buzz, as The 404 Media site noted that the supplement’s “Summer Reading List for 2025″ included a shoutout forby Isabel Allende, described as a climate fiction novel. It also championed a science fiction work,While both Allende and Weir are best-selling authors, neither has written books with those titles. Among other errors it noted, the site also said that an article in the King Features publication on hammocks used journal references that evidently were fictitious or could not be verified.Commenting on the supplement’s book list, one poster on the social media site Bluesky wrote, “They missedby George Orwell. A perceptive novel set in the near future when society has finally broken down to the extent that readers can no longer trust a word they are reading in once-valued newspapers." Wrote another poster, “The irony is that lots of publishers would have loved to send info about upcoming books for a nationally syndicated summer reading list. What a waste!”In 2023,
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