Arena Group, the magazine’s publisher, said it had fired Ross Levinsohn in an attempt to “improve the operational efficiency and revenue of the company”.
It madeno reference to an investigation by Futurism, a tech news website, last month that found Sports Illustrated had published articles generated by AI, with headshots of fake journalists attached.
The publisher denied it had used AI to produce articles, claiming the content had been created by a third-party advertising company, AdVon Commerce. It said the fictitious names attached to the stories were pseudonyms, not AI-generated personas.
The investigation found a profile page of a product reviewer, Sora Tanaka, who does not exist but was described as a journalist who “has always been a fitness guru, and loves to try different foods and drinks”.
Sports Illustrated's publisher is the latest media company damaged by being less than forthcoming about who or what is writing its stories. Photo / AP
Fake name attached to a headshot
Another article about volleyball was purportedly written by Drew Ortiz, which Futurism claimed was a fake name attached to an AI-generated headshot.
The publisher said at the time: “Today, an article was published alleging that Sports Illustrated published AI-generated articles. According to our initial investigation, this is not accurate.”
The company said it would sever ties with AdVon Commerce over its unauthorised use of pseudonyms.
Levinsohn’s departure lets Manoj Bhargava, an Indian businessman, step in as interim CEO before the post is filled. It follows rounds of lay-offs, including in February, when 17 staff lost their jobs.
Sports Illustrated, launched in 1954, became the first magazine to reach a circulation of 1 million readers and become known for its annual “swimsuit issue”, featuring women wearing bathing costumes on its cover.
The magazine was sold in 2019 to Maven, a digital media company that has since rebranded to the Arena Group.
