May 22, 2025
The outlet claims to work was not compiled by any on-staff Chicago Sun Times employees.
The Chicago Sun-Times is facing sharp criticism after it published a summer reading list in its May 18 “Best of Summer” print supplement that included entirely fictitious book titles attributed to real-life authors.
The list featured fabricated works like Tidewater Dreams by Isabel Allende and The Last Algorithm by Andy Weir, titles made up by artificial intelligence. The booklist entries were not verified by editorial staff and presented to readers as real recommendations.
The blunder was first flagged by author Rachael King, who took to social media to sound the alarm.
“The Chicago Sun-Times obviously gets ChatGPT to write a ‘summer reads’ feature almost entirely made up of real authors but completely fake books. What are we coming to?” she wrote.
The newspaper admitted fault, stating that freelance contributor Marco Buscaglia had assembled the list using an AI tool without proper verification.
“Stupidly, and 100% on me, I just kind of republished this list that [an AI program] spit out,” Buscaglia said in an interview with 404 Media. “Usually, it’s something I wouldn’t do… I definitely failed in that task.” He added that he was “embarrassed” by the lapse in editorial standards.
The Sun-Times distanced itself from the error, clarifying that the content originated from a syndicated partner, not its newsroom.
In a public statement, the publication said, “We are looking into how this made it into print as we speak. It is not editorial content and was not created by, or approved by, the Sun-Times newsroom. We value your trust in our reporting and take this very seriously.”
But the damage is done, and it isn’t the first instance of AI-generated misinformation slipping into the media.
In 2023, BLACK ENTERPRISE reported that Sports Illustrated published product review articles penned under fake bylines with AI-generated profile photos. A third-party vendor, AdVon Commerce, supplied the stories. The fallout was swift. The Arena Group, publisher of Sports Illustrated, cut ties with AdVon and removed the AI content. The magazine’s CEO was later ousted, and the editorial union said it was “horrified.”
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