AI sucks and it’s already doing its best to ruin everything you enjoy, but hey, at least most of these models are built on countless stolen works, and keeping the whole thing running is horrendous for the environment. Oh wait, that doesn’t sound very good at all, actually. I’m not saying we need to make the Butlerian Jihad a reality, but I’m also not not saying that. At the same time, it is still funny to see people fall for stuff that is obviously fake, and Carscoops reports the latest high-profile example of that comes from NBC Chicago and our old friend Piss Jugman.
If NBC Chicago had simply fallen for an AI video sent in by a viewer who was trying to trick them, that would have been one thing. Still embarrassing, yes, but you could probably see how it could happen. The C-suite loves to overwork and underpay workers while also refusing to hire enough staffers for everyone to do their jobs well, and media companies are no exception to that rule. Sometimes things fall through the cracks when workers are busy trying to put out a dozen fires all at once.
That said, the account we’re talking about here is Weaber Valley Speedway, a satirical account that’s known for its terrible spelling and its association with a larger set of satirical sites that includes the Celina 52 Truck Stop that gave us Piss Jugman. If you look at Weaber Valley Speedway’s Facebook page for more than a couple seconds, it becomes pretty clear that it’s a satire page. As you can see below, though, somehow this video ended up on NBC Chicago as an actual news story.
Good ole Weaber Valley Speedway
If it had just been a race that didn’t happen, again, it would have been embarrassing, but it wouldn’t have been so bad if the caption included on the video hadn’t read “We are sorry for the Power outtage in the 607 Late Models race Sat nite. The power copany keeps cuttin the lites for a few secs every week to try to indimitate us into payin the bill.All drivers who was in the wreak was given 5$ extra after the race.”
This is Facebook we’re talking about here, and no one still on Mark Zuckerberg’s creeper app can still read, much less spell, so maybe it was more believable than it should have been. But you’d also think they would have reached out to the track for permission to use its footage and a comment on what happened. Maybe management just laid off the person who used to do that, and the remaining skeleton crew just didn’t have time? Heck, for all we know, someone in management saw the video on Facebook and forced them to run the story despite protests from staff.
I’ve reached out to NBC Chicago, hoping they can provide a little more information about how this happened, but a spokesperson was not immediately available to respond. If we do get a reply, we’ll be sure to update this post with their explanation.
