Executive Changes at Sports Illustrated Publisher Follows AI Controversy

There has been a recent leadership shakeup at The Arena Group, publisher of Sports Illustrated, following an AI-related controversy — though the company claims the two events are unrelated.  

According to a recent article published by Futurism, the media company fired two senior executives, COO Andrew Kraft and President Rob Barrett, amidst a broader reorganization plan by majority owner Manoj Bhargava. However, this move came after a report revealing that Sports Illustrated and TheStreet, another Arena Group-owned news site, published articles with affiliate links under the bylines of fake, AI-generated writers. 

As AI technology becomes more advanced and prevalent in various industries across the workforce, companies are grappling with possible ethical, operational, and reputational challenges that the technology brings with it. The use of AI in content creation, for instance, raises serious questions about transparency, authenticity, and the reliability of information being distributed to the public. With no journalist tied to a distributed article, by means of paper or a digital form, no figure can likely be held accountable for any inaccuracies — except for the actual company distributing the information.  

For the workforce, the increasing adoption of AI technologies will require a change in skill requirements and job roles, which is leading to greater demands for upskilling. While AI can handle repetitive and data-intensive tasks efficiently, there’s a growing need for guardrails and human oversight to ensure ethical standards and quality control. This could be dealt with by executives at their respective companies, but there have also been moves on the federal level in the U.S. with the Biden Administration recently issuing a 111-page executive order on the emerging technology. 

The controversy at The Arena Group reveals just how important human/professional judgment is in managing and directing AI-generated content — especially in fields like journalism, where credibility and voice is fundamental to the industry. While AI can assist journalists in producing reports, and in scanning massive files, transcripts, and data sets, human oversight and accountability of the final publication will remain essential for journalism, even as the technology becomes more advanced.