"This should never have happened. Within Mediahuis, we apply strict rules for the use of AI, in which care, human control and transparency are crucial. The fact that these principles were not followed is at odds with the standards we set and the promise to our readers that we guarantee reliable journalism."
"I summarised reports using AI tools and worked from those summaries, trusting they were accurate. In doing so, I wrongly put words into [the mouths of journalists]."
"While we clarify matters, we have removed a number of articles written by Mr Vandermeersch as Mediahuis Fellow which were published on the Irish Independent online."
Journalist Peter Vandermeersch used AI tools including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Notebook to create summaries for newsletter and newspaper articles. These AI-generated summaries contained hallucinations, including fabricated quotes attributed to prominent journalists. An analysis by Dutch publication NRC identified issues across multiple blog posts and news articles published in NRC and the Irish Independent. Mediahuis CEO Gert Ysebaert stated the incident violated the company's strict AI usage rules emphasizing care, human control, and transparency. Vandermeersch was suspended from his Fellowship role and multiple articles were removed from the Irish Independent. Vandermeersch acknowledged trusting the AI summaries without proper verification.
Read at Irish Independent
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