Author Keeps Using AI After It Added Fake Quotes to Book
▼ Summary
– Steven Rosenbaum’s new book, *The Future of Truth*, examines how AI bends and blurs reality, but a *New York Times* investigation found he used AI tools that produced improperly attributed or synthetic quotes in the book.
– The misattributed quotes include one that tech reporter Kara Swisher said she “never said” and another that professor Lisa Feldman Barrett said is false and not from her book.
– Rosenbaum is conducting a full “citation audit” with editors to correct future editions of the book following the controversy.
– He says he learned to be more suspicious and less trusting of AI outputs, but he will not abandon AI tools for research.
– Rosenbaum finds AI “magical” for connecting ideas and providing new pathways of thought, comparing its allure to Tolkien’s One Ring.
Journalist and author Steven Rosenbaum has firsthand experience with the dangers of artificial intelligence, yet he remains unwilling to abandon the technology that betrayed him. His latest book, The Future of Truth: How AI Reshapes Reality, examines how “Truth is being bent, blurred, and synthesized” under the “pressure of fast-moving, profit-driven AI.” But a recent New York Times investigation revealed that Rosenbaum’s own work contains what he now calls “a handful of improperly attributed or synthetic quotes” linked to his use of AI tools during research.
Among the problematic passages is a quote that tech reporter Kara Swisher told the Times she “never said.” Another, attributed to Northeastern University professor Lisa Feldman Barrett, includes statements that Barrett says “don’t appear in [my] book, and they are also wrong.” Rosenbaum is now collaborating with editors on what he describes as a full “citation audit” to correct future editions.
Speaking with Ars after the controversy erupted, Rosenbaum admitted he “learned a lesson” and will “be much more suspicious” and “reticent to trust” AI outputs going forward. Yet despite this wake-up call, he shows no interest in returning to the AI-free research methods he used for previous books.
“The idea of taking X years off [from AI] while it sorts itself out, and going back to, like, Microsoft Word … it’s just not in my nature,” he told Ars. He called the technology “magical,” explaining that “it connects, it knits together ideas and gives you pathways to think about things that you’re not going to come up with on your own.”
That magic, however, comes with a familiar warning. Like J. R. R. Tolkien’s One Ring, AI has a way of convincing its users that they can wield its power without being corrupted by it. Rosenbaum’s experience suggests otherwise, but he is not ready to let go.
(Source: Ars Technica)