Ars Technica fake AI article on AI accusations: Difference between revisions

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|Type=Misinformation
|Type=Misinformation
|Description=Ars Tecnica published a poorly AI written article, on a guy being bullied by an AI Agent. Later they pulled the article and clarified the situation.
|Description=Ars Tecnica published a poorly AI written article, on a guy being bullied by an AI Agent. Later they pulled the article and clarified the situation.
}}Ars Technica published an article<ref>{{Cite web |title=Article posted on Ars Technica |url=https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/02/after-a-routine-code-rejection-an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-someone-by-name |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260213194851/https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/02/after-a-routine-code-rejection-an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-someone-by-name/}}</ref> on a programmer who was being "bullied" by an AI autonomous agent. The article was written using AI, with non-existant quotations. The article was later removed and Ars Technica published an editor's note<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ars Technica retraction |url=https://arstechnica.com/staff/2026/02/editors-note-retraction-of-article-containing-fabricated-quotations}}</ref> explaing what happened.
}}
[[Ars Technica]] published an article<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/02/after-a-routine-code-rejection-an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-someone-by-name|title=Retraction: After a routine code rejection, an AI agent published a hit piece on someone by name|author=Ars Staff|date=2026-02-13|work=ArsTechnica|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260213194851/https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/02/after-a-routine-code-rejection-an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-someone-by-name/|archive-date=2026-02-13|url-status=live}}</ref> on a programmer who was being "bullied" by an AI autonomous agent. The article was written using AI, with non-existant quotations. The article was later removed and Ars Technica published an editor's note<ref>{{Cite web |title=Editor’s Note: Retraction of article containing fabricated quotations|url=https://arstechnica.com/staff/2026/02/editors-note-retraction-of-article-containing-fabricated-quotations|first=Ken|last=Fisher|date=2026-02-15|work=ArsTechnica}}</ref> explaing what happened.


==Background==
==Background==
Scott Shambaugh (contributor of the matplotlib library on github) created a good first issue/first contribution [check needed here of which one was it, seems to be the same for this repo], and got an [https://openclaw.ai OpenClaw] agent pull request<ref>{{Cite web |title=Github pull request |url=https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/31132}}</ref> as fix for the issue. The pull request got closed, the AI Agent got mad, so the AI Agent generated a post on its blog<ref>{{Cite web |title=AI Agents's post |url=https://github.com/crabby-rathbun/mjrathbun-website/commit/83b7d600b00665af578074defb2040e7ba4f188b |url-status=dead}}</ref>, and also Scott wrote a blog post. <ref>{{Cite web |first=The Shamblog |title=An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me |url=https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me}}</ref>
Scott Shambaugh (contributor of the matplotlib library on github) created a good first issue/first contribution [check needed here of which one was it, seems to be the same for this repo], and got an [https://openclaw.ai OpenClaw] agent pull request<ref>{{Cite web |author=@crabby-rathbun |date=2026-02-10 |title=[PERF] Replace np.column_stack with np.vstack().T |url=https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/31132 |url-status=live |website=[[GitHub]]}}</ref> as fix for the issue. The pull request got closed, the AI Agent got mad, so the AI Agent generated a post on its blog<ref>{{Cite web |author=@crabby-rathbun |date=2026-02-11 |title=Commit 83b7d60 |url=https://github.com/crabby-rathbun/mjrathbun-website/commit/83b7d600b00665af578074defb2040e7ba4f188b |url-status=live |work=[[GitHub]]}}</ref>, and also Scott wrote a blog post. <ref>{{Cite web|title=An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me |url=https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-published-a-hit-piece-on-me|first=Scott|last=Shambaugh|date=2026-02-12|work=The Shamblog}}</ref>


==Incident==
==Incident==
Ars Technica (authors listed are "Benj Edwards and Kyle Orland") wrote an article on the situation, but the hit piece's contained AI allucinated quotations.
Ars Technica (authors listed are "Benj Edwards and Kyle Orland") wrote an article on the situation, but the hit piece's contained AI allucinated quotations.


== Ars Technica's response ==
==Ars Technica's response==
The Ars Technica's staff wrote an Editor’s Note explaining briefly explaining what happened. The article author also wrote an apology on BlueSky<ref>{{Cite web |title=Apology |url=https://bsky.app/profile/benjedwards.com/post/3mewgow6ch22p}}</ref>
The Ars Technica's staff wrote an Editor’s Note explaining briefly explaining what happened. The article author also wrote an apology on BlueSky<ref>{{Cite web |last=Edwards |first=Benj |date=2026-02-15 |title=Apology |url=https://bsky.app/profile/benjedwards.com/post/3mewgow6ch22p |url-status=live |work=[[Bluesky]] |quote=Sorry all this is my fault; and speculation has grown worse because I have been sick in bed with a high fever and unable to reliably address it (still am sick) I was told by management not to comment until they did. Here is my statement in images below arstechnica.com/staff/2026/02/editors-note-retraction-of-article-containing-fabricated-quotations/}}</ref>


==References==
==References==
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{{reflist}}
 
[[Category:2026 incidents]]
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[[Category:Ars Technica]]