Whoopsie The influential, 150-year-old newspaper The Irish Times just apologized for accidentally publishing an AI-generated hoax article — bylined by an entirely fake AI-generated “journalist,” no less — in its Opinion section. In a statement published Sunday, editor Ruadhán Mac Cormaic apologized for the incident, which he described the incident as a “deliberate and coordinated deception.” “It was a breach of the trust between the Irish Times and its readers, and we are genuinely sorry,” read the statement. “The incident has highlighted a gap in our pre-publication procedures. We need to make them more robust, and we will.” “It has also underlined one of the challenges raised by generative AI for news organizations,” Mac Cormaic added. “We, like others, will learn and adapt.” Welp. So long, reality. Stir the S*** The anonymous person behind the AI-generated article in question, “Irish women’s obsession with fake tan is problematic,” sounds insufferable. They told the Guardian that they were actively attempting to both “give [their] friends a laugh” and “stir the shit” in the ongoing public discourse about identity politics. Exactly what the internet’s information infrastructure needs right now, right? According to the Guardian, the plan unfortunately worked, at least to a degree. The piece — which discussed cultural appropriation and the ethics of fake tanning through the purported lens of a fictional Latinx immigrant who grew up in Guayaquil, Ecuador — was reportedly the paper’s second-most read article ever published, and sparked discussion online and on the radio. Warning Flag Worse, the Irish Times…Newspaper Apologizes for Accidentally Running Deranged AI-Generated Article