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    Brian Merchant: The depressing fall of Sports Illustrated reveals the real tragedy of AI

    Quick, name five classic American magazines. Did you say Sports Illustrated? I did. And I'm not even a sports guy. But if you're of a certain age, you know Sports Illustrated. Along with, say, People, Time and National Geographic, it has long lined the dentist offices, neighbors' doormats and coffee tables of your life. It's an institution. At one point, it boasted 3 million subscribers. It's ...
    by Brian Merchant, Los Angeles Times Dec 01, 2023 5 minutes
    Sports Illustrated was an icon among magazines.

    Quick, name five classic American magazines.

    Did you say Sports Illustrated? I did. And I'm not even a sports guy. But if you're of a certain age, you know Sports Illustrated. Along with, say, People, Time and National Geographic, it has long lined the dentist offices, neighbors' doormats and coffee tables of your life. It's an institution. At one point, it boasted 3 million subscribers. It's won numerous awards and accolades. The evening news would do whole segments about its swimsuit issue.

    Today, it's pumping out third-rate articles by AI-generated writers in a darkening corner of the internet. It's a stunning fall for one of the great icons of American sports journalism. So what happened? How did such a celebrated publication get here? The answers point us to one of the most pressing — and unlikely — dangers posed by the ongoing AI boom.

    First, the facts: On Monday, that revealed Sports Illustrated was publishing attributed to authors that didn't exist.

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