The Diplomat website retracted an article on Friday, saying that a story about a Ukraine firm was fabricated, and the bylined journalist, one “Kim Hwa-pyeong”, may not exist. “We now know that the journalist fabricated the interview and may not even be who they claimed to be,” the website said. Brendan Ruberry of Semafor yesterday added on X that “Clarissa Jenkins”, another writer for the same website, also did not exist—and her report was graded by a detection service as “100 per cent AI-generated”. . ACCELERATING PROBLEM The problem is likely accelerating. Sophia Gonzales, Ervin B Hoskins, and five other published journalists do not exist, according to a study in September by researchers at OpenAI. The present writer recently raised the issue of “Maya Wang”, the widely quoted China-hostile voice at Human Rights Watch. Her friends say the name was made-up for the wife of former Hong Kong Free Press columnist “Kong Tsung-gan”—who also did not exist—even though he was quoted in the New York Times, CNN, the Guardian, Time magazine, Washington Post, France24, Deutsch Welle and so on. Kong was unmasked as Brian P Kern, a US anti-China activist. UK Press Gazette reported on September 18 that the widely quoted art therapist "Dr Eleni Nicolaou", quoted in Forbes, Psychology, Vice and Glamour, appeared to be AI-generated. While it is not illegal to use a pen name or to add a “name changed to protect the innocent” disclaimer in an upfront manner, any practice that deceives readers is considered unethical in journalism. This can be a particular issue when there is a clear political purpose, as in the case of Mrs Kern, or an ethnicity-switching aspect, as in the case of her husband’s “yellowface” writings. . GENERATING FAKE FACES In the past five or six years, AI-powered scams have made these scams easier, as fake faces can be generated. In 2020, “Martin Aspen”, a researcher who produced a lengthy report on Hunter Biden’s dealings in China, turned out to be a fake identity with an AI-generated face. The project was financed by Apple Daily, run by Trump-fanatic publisher Jimmy Lai. . .

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