Police in Bridgeton, New Jersey, report that NewsBreak published an "entirely false" article about a Christmas Day murder in the town—the latest example of AI-generated fake news going live.
This "article" is circulating social media and was brought to BPD's attention. It is entirely false. Nothing even similar to this story occurred on or around Christmas, or even in recent memory for the area they described. The article does not have an author and states at the bottom, "This post includes content assisted by AI tools. This content was assisted by AI and may contain errors. Please verify critical information with trusted sources." It seems this "news" outlet's AI writes fiction they have no problem publishing to readers.
The article's been deleted and is not present at archive.org or archive.today, but had the headline "Christmas Day Tragedy Strikes Bridgeton, New Jersey Amid Rising Gun Violence in Small Towns."
NewsBreak isn't responding to inquiries, reports Futurism's Noor Al-Sibai.
We have reached out to the site to ask if the article was a contributor original, which the site does publish a la Medium, or if it had been written elsewhere. That said, we're not too optimistic about a response, considering that NJ.com said in its own reporting about the AI incident that NewsBreak had not responded to its request for comment.
Ultimately, the slipperiness of this faux article's sourcing speaks to the heart of AI-generated content. Instead of revolutionizing media — or anything else, for that matter — outlet owners who insist on using generative AI instead of human writers have done little more than sow discord in an institution that's already infamously mistrusted by the public.
Looking forward to election year!
