New York
CNN
 — 

Newspaper chain Gannett has paused using an artificial intelligence software to put in writing highschool sports activities dispatches after the expertise made a number of main flubs in articles in at the very least one in every of its papers.

Several highschool sports activities stories written by an AI service referred to as LedeAI and printed by the Columbus Dispatch earlier this month went viral on social media this week — and never in a great way. The stories have been mocked on social media for being repetitive, missing key particulars, utilizing odd language and customarily sounding like they’d been written by a computer with no precise data of sports activities.

CNN recognized a number of different native Gannett retailers, together with the Louisville Courrier Journal, AZ Central, Florida Today and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, that have all printed comparable tales written by LedeAI in current weeks.

Many of the stories characteristic equivalent language, describing “high school football action,” noting when one workforce “took victory away from” one other and describing “cruise-control” wins. In many instances, the tales additionally repeated the date of the video games being lined a number of instances in only a few paragraphs.

Gannett has paused its experiment with LedeAI in all of its native markets that had been utilizing the service, in line with the corporate. The pause was earlier reported by Axios.

“In addition to adding hundreds of reporting jobs across the country, we are experimenting with automation and AI to build tools for our journalists and add content for our readers,” a Gannett spokesperson mentioned in a press release. “We are continually evaluating vendors as we refine processes to ensure all the news and information we provide meets the highest journalistic standards.”

LedeAI didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from CNN.

As of Wednesday, a number of Dispatch sports activities tales written by the service had been up to date and appended with the note: “This AI-generated story has been updated to correct errors in coding, programming or style.”

The AI software debacle comes after Gannett axed a whole bunch of jobs in December when it laid off 6% of its information division.

It additionally comes as many information retailers grapple with learn how to deal with the fast development of AI expertise.

CNET earlier this yr additionally paused an experiment utilizing AI to put in writing tales after it was pressured to subject a number of corrections on AI-generated stories. Meanwhile, another retailers have blocked access to software program from OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, in an effort to forestall their content material from getting used to coach its AI fashions.