“The Times also found similar books on a much broader range of topics, including cooking, programming, gardening, business, crafts, medicine, religion and mathematics, as well as self-help books and novels, among many other categories.”
– Seth Kugel and Stephen Hiltner
The New Tork Times gives a detailed description of hoaxers at work using “a swirling mix” of AI tools. In this article, they focus on the impact in the travel writing industry, with fake travel guides, but the tools can just as easily be applied to news sites.
Hoaxers can use different generative AI tools to write the text, illustrate their work, create a fake persona complete with a (false) ID picture, and then use bots to populate the site with positive reviews.
The article includes some telltake signs to look for.
A New Frontier for Travel Scammers: A.I.-Generated Guidebooks | THE NEW YORK TIMES | August 5, 2023 | by Seth Kugel and Stephen Hiltner