CNET Is Reviewing the Accuracy of All Its AI-Written Articles After Multiple Major Corrections

[highplainsdem]

https://gizmodo.com/cnet-ai-chatgpt-news-robot-1849996151

CNET Is Reviewing the Accuracy of All Its AI-Written Articles After Multiple Major Corrections
Big surprise: CNET's writing robot doesn't know what it's talking about.

By Lauren Leffer



Aside from stringing together human-like, fluid English language sentences, one of ChatGPT’s biggest skillsets seems to be getting things wrong. In the pursuit of generating passable paragraphs, the AI-program fabricates information and bungles facts like nobody’s business. Unfortunately, tech outlet CNET decided to make it its business.

The tech media site has been forced to issue multiple, major corrections to a post published on CNET, created via ChatGPT, as first reported by Futurism. In one single AI-written explainer on compounding interest, there were at least five significant inaccuracies, which have now been amended. The errors were as follows, according to CNET’s hefty correction:

The article implied a savings account initially containing $10,000 with a 3% interest rate, compounding annually, would accrue $10,300 in interest after a year. The real earned interest would amount to $300.

-snip-

And just like the outlet’s public acknowledgement of its use of AI only followed widespread criticism, CNET didn’t identify nor aim to fix all these inaccuracies noted on Tuesday, all on its own. The media outlet’s correction only came after Futurism directly alerted CNET to some of the errors, Futurism reported.

-snip-

Btw, the example above of the correction CNET had to post about an article was the first of FIVE corrections for the SAME article, ending with the admission that the error-riddled AI-generated article "incorrectly conflated APR and APY, and offered bad advice accordingly."

But hey, they didn't have to pay anyone to write it...

Re Gizmodo referring to Futurism - I want to recommend Futurism. See these links:

https://twitter.com/futurism

https://futurism.com/

[enough]

1. Post-truth reality.

[Irish_Dem]

4. AI will tell us what reality is each day.

ETA Like the GOP tries to do.

[Effete Snob]

2. It's really amazing the stuff it gets wrong

But it does so fluidly and glibly which means, unfortunately, credibly.

I have tried it out to write things in a field in which I'm pretty well-educated, and it is kind of amusing how it just gets things spectacularly wrong.

The scary thing is that as AI-generated content increases, then being able to fact-check it will also become more difficult, since the "reference material" will be generated the same way.

[genxlib]

3. Maybe I am crazy

But it seems a no-brainer that this is the kind of thing that would benefit from a mandatory disclaimer requirement.

Make them tell us in a prominent way how those articles are generated so that we can decide what to consume and believe.

[intheflow]

5. I remember when CNET was the standard-bearer of tech news.

But anyone with an ounce of understanding about AI would know to fact-check AI-generated articles. Disgraceful!

[cyclonefence]

6. And not just tech news

I relied on their reviews and recommendations for major household appliance, like refrigerators and dishwashers. They were better than Consumer Reports in that they tested features that really mattered to me. The past few times I've consulted them, I've even had trouble navigating the site.

[intheflow]

9. Same.

I used to download games and programs from ZDNET because they were so secure, but that hasn’t been the case for a while now.

[highplainsdem]

7. According to an earlier article, they were supposedly

having humans check the AI articles. That was their claim, anyway.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143017812

[Tommy Carcetti]

8. Let's just not do this, okay?

This whole AI thing...yeah, let's just take a pass on it.

[ZonkerHarris]

11. That's exactly what an AI would say....

[ZonkerHarris]

10. You get what you pay for.

[New Breed Leader]

12. Gee, ya think?

dumbasses.

[robbob]

13. I see a future role for AI generated articles

As virtual press secretary for the Republican Party. Dovetails quite nicely with their “alternate facts” platform.