CNET is reviewing its AI-written articles after being notified of serious errors

If you visit any of CNET’s AI-written articles, you’ll now see an editor’s note at the top that says: “We are currently reviewing this story for accuracy. If we find errors, we will update and issue corrections.” The publication has added the note after being notified of major errors in at least one of the machine-written financial explainers it had published. 

If you’ll recall, CNET editor-in-chief Connie Guglielmo recently admitted that the publication had put out around 75 articles about basic financial topics since November last year. Guglielmo said the website decided to do an experiment to see if AI can truly be used in newsrooms and other information-based services in the coming months and years. Based on Futurism’s report, it looks like the answer is: Sure, but the pieces it generates need to thoroughly fact-checked by a human editor. 

Futurism combed through one of the articles Guglielmo highlighted in the post, namely the piece entitled “What Is Compound Interest?”, and found a handful of serious errors. While the article has since been corrected, the original version said that “you’ll earn $10,300 at the end of the first year” — instead of just $300 — if you deposit …read more