At the moment, it appears that the once mighty Sports Illustrated has been forced into retirement after the magazine appeared to publish articles by fake writers, complete with A.I.-generated author bios and photos. Shortly thereafter, Arena Group lost its license to publish S.I., and there were mass layoffs. (Note to any company thinking of trying this: A.I. is very good at detecting other A.I.)
It’s a pathetic end for a 70-year-old icon that historically published only real—and great—sportswriters such as Dan Jenkins, George Plimpton, Rick Reilly, Selena Roberts, Frank Deford, and even Kurt Vonnegut.
