POPULAR tech site CNET has been using artificially intelligent writers and now one of its sister sites is being called out for a big AI mistake.
CNET paused its AI-written articles after complaints but sister site Bankrate is still publishing them and the results aren’t always great.
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According to Futurism, a major problem was spotted in a Bankrate article about mortgages.
The AI writer stated” “There are many different types of mortgages to suit a variety of budgets and financial situations.
“Among the options is a 5/1 ARM, which is a 30-year mortgage with a fixed rate for five years followed by periodic rate adjustments.”
However, Futurism flagged that the “30-year mortgage” statement was incorrect.
A 5/1 adjustable rate mortgage doesn’t have to be for 30 years and is often much shorter than this.
Futurism went as far as to refer to the AI as a “b****s**** generator.”
This is actually a quote from Princeton computer science professor Arvind Narayanan who is also skeptical about trusting AI like ChatGPT to write true facts.
Futurism raised issues with Bankrate’s publisher and the article soon disappeared.
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Many other AI articles riddled with falsehoods have also been removed.
The AI articles containing misinformation come at a time when some human writers are genuinely fearing for their jobs.
An anonymous human reporter recently published a first-person piece on Futurism regarding AI taking over the newsroom.
The journalist currently works for Red Venture – the company that owns CNET, Bankrate, CreditCards.com, and others.
And according to their account, CNET and Bankrate are now employing AI bots to publish articles.
“The AI is here, and it’s pumping out articles — inaccurate, messily copied, poorly disclosed ones,” the reporter writes.
“At a rate that I probably couldn’t achieve even if I skipped sleep, gave up eating, abdicated all hobbies and responsibilities, and forwent all those other annoying little human things that seem to get in the way of the glorious goal of making my company money,” they added.
