This needs to be shared on its own for visibility. It’s more difficult to trust Ars Technica after this. I DO respect them for publishing this but…
Frankly it’s getting increasingly difficult to trust any news source.
In the journalism world, fabricated quotes is an egregious offense.
https://arstechnica.com/staff/2026/02/editors-note-retraction-of-article-containing-fabricated-quotations/
@killyourfm It’s shouting into the wind, I appreciate, but the simple rule should be that any *actual* journalist just shouldn’t use AI. At all. Ever. At least not for anything relating to an article.
I remember being at uni in 2000 and watching the journalism course student and dreading for the state of News once they were in charge. Now they are, and I was right to worry.
In Australia, Journalism was replaced by Churnalism decades ago ...
Now the laid off or retired Journalists write for a few independent sources and are only found on Social Media ... and/or emails to supporters ...
And because our main stream media only repeats what somebody somewhere sometime said ... is known as the Media Streaming Misinformation ...
@wiredfire @killyourfm What is doubly-distressing about this particular incident is that it was done by a journalist/author who was known previously for being knowlegable, cautious and careful.
Someone I (previously) personally trusted, seemingly succumbed to a time-pressure-induced brain-fart.
@shelldozer @wiredfire @killyourfm if Ars had rules as clear as described in the retractation, then this is a simple fuck around / find out kind of situation. Since the consequence is the credibility of a well established publication, I think that person should take full responsibility.
I do not expect Ars to do that. I'm not even sure that person will be scolded.
Right after I unfollowed them for spamming my feed with AI ads... :-)
They add their chance!
They failed 
@killyourfm I'm still a supporter of Ars. The fact that they published such a large, public retraction like this is a good sign. Most publications would just revise the article and maybe put a footnote on the bottom that they "fixed some inaccuracies."
This gives me hope that Ars will continue to be a solid source of tech news.
"That is a serious failure of our standards."
And one that is easily fixed ... while AI can be used a search tool it must always be checked simply because it is, as the title states ... Artificial ...
@killyourfm a journalist fabricating quotes in their article should be fired immediately. And yes, that includes journalists that use a bullshit generator (AI) without checking it hasn't generated bullshit. Especially where the editorial policy is that AI must not be used.
Disappointed that this retraction doesn't say that the journo in question was fired, so agree that it is hard to trust them now.
Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
Wiredfire
MyView
Mike Spooner
F4GRX Sébastien
Seth of the Fediverse
Kingu
Helen LH
silverwizard
Jaye 🍊
🍀March Mastodoness🍀
Steve Hill 🏴🇪🇺
Jesse