A national network of local news sites called Hoodline is using fake authors with fictional and pointedly racially diverse names to byline AI-generated articles., Hoodline websites were once a refuge for hyperlocal human-boots-on-the-ground reporting. These days, though, when you log onto a Hoodline site, you'll find articles written by a slew of entirely fabricated writers.
In that hard-to-parse post, Chen declared that these pen names "are not associated with any individual live journalist or editor." Instead, "the independent variants of the AI model that we're using are tied to specific pen names, but are still being edited by humans." , and many other publications, Hoodline's made-up authors do have little "AI" badges next to their names.
Which brings us to the details of the bylines themselves. Each city's Hoodline site has a bespoke lineup of fake writers, each with their own fake name. In May, Chenfound, the fake author lineups at various Hoodline websites appear to reflect a given region's demographics, a reality that feels hardly coincidental.