Wired and Business Insider have deleted articles that had been supposedly written by a freelance journalist named Margaux Blanchard – after allegations emerged that they were actually penned by an AI bot and were filled with apparent fabrications.
Several other US and UK publications have published – and some have paid for – articles from Blanchard on everything from feature stories on couples getting married on video games to a personal essay on having her first child at 45.
But the alleged ruse fell apart when Blanchard emailed a pitch to Dispatch editor Jacob Furedi about “Gravemont, a decommissioned mining town in rural Colorado that has been repurposed into one of the world’s most secretive training grounds for death investigation.”
It was “absolute bollocks,” Furedi told Press Gazette.
There was no Gravemont, and Blanchard could not provide any of the public records she claimed to have obtained, according to Press Gazette.
At least six publications have uploaded articles by Blanchard, allowing her to use links to previous bylines to substantiate her career.
And many of the articles written by the alleged AI bot include detailed accounts of sources who appear to be made up out of thin air.
Wired was the first publication to delete an article attributed to Blanchard about real human couples getting married on Minecraft.
The article cited “Jessica Hu, 34, an ordained officiant based in Chicago” who “made a name for herself as a ‘digital celebrant’” – yet there’s no trace of such an officiant online.
Wired published an article Thursday about the ordeal, writing: “If anyone should be able to catch an AI scammer, it’s Wired…Unfortunately one got through.”
The publication claimed it started noticing red flags when Blanchard insisted on being paid by PayPal or check, and was unable to provide any personal documentation.
Wired said an editor ran the article through two third-party AI-detection tools, but it came back clear.
In April, Business Insider published two personal essays by Blanchard two days apart about working remotely as a parent and having her first child at 45.
On Tuesday, after Press Gazette said it flagged the concerns to Business Insider, the articles were taken down.
“We have removed first-person essays that didn’t meet Business Insider’s standards and have since bolstered verification protocols,” a Business Insider spokesperson told The Post.
Cone Magazine, a UK music-and-art publication, also removed an article by Blanchard about indie streetwear brands after Press Gazette reached out sharing concerns.
SFGate removed a feature published in April on Disney superfans with Blanchard’s byline, which referenced “Kayla Reed, a 28-year-old content creator with over 100,000 followers” – though no record of such a viral influencer could be found.
“In light of questions raised about this article, it has been removed pending an internal investigation,” SFGate said in a statement.
Naked Politics, a UK outlet targeted at young readers, published an article by Blanchard in May titled: “I was 14 when I first asked for help. Now I’m 17 and still waiting.”
Naked Politics removed the story, saying it “failed to meet the journalistic standards Naked Politics adheres to through our regulator Impress. This included likely false or unverifiable information from experts cited that were not able to be traced.”
“I think she could get away with writing an op-ed for a politics site, she could get away with writing some AI slop about mental health for Business Insider, and perhaps even to an extent she could write about the world of online for Wired,” Furedi told Press Gazette.
“But if it’s about going to a place and speaking to people, you can’t fake that.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
