Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

The Chicago Sun-Times newspaper’s “Best of Summer” section published over the weekend contains a guide to summer reads that features real authors and fake books that they did not write was partially generated by artificial intelligence, the person who generated it told 404 Media.

The article, called “Summer Reading list for 2025,” suggests reading Tidewater by Isabel Allende, a “multigenerational saga set in a coastal town where magical realism meets environmental activism. Allende’s first climate fiction novel explores how one family confronts rising sea levels while uncovering long-buried secrets.” It also suggests reading The Last Algorithm by Andy Weir, “another science-driven thriller” by the author of The Martian. “This time, the story follows a programmer who discovers that an AI system has developed consciousness—and has been secretly influencing global events for years.” Neither of these books exist, and many of the books on the list either do not exist or were written by other authors than the ones they are attributed to.

The article is not bylined but was written by Marco Buscaglia, whose name is on most of the other articles in the 64-page section. Buscaglia told 404 Media via email and on the phone that the list was AI-generated. “I do use AI for background at times but always check out the material first. This time, I did not and I can’t believe I missed it because it’s so obvious. No excuses,” he said. “On me 100 percent and I’m completely embarrassed.” […]

The AI-generated article was first noticed by a book podcaster named Tina on Threads. It was then posted by Rachael King to Bluesky, where it quickly went viral. […]

Other articles in the Heat Index insert have what appear to be AI-generated sections as well. For example, in an article called “Hanging Out: Inside America’s growing hammock culture,” Buscaglia quotes “Dr. Jennifer Campos, a professor of leisure studies at the University of Colorado, in her 2023 research paper published in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography.” A search for Campos in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography does not return any results. While it’s not exactly clear why the AI said this, the only mention of “Jennifer Campos” on the University of Colorado’s website is about the graduation of a student named Jennifer Campos, who works in advertising.

Go read the rest.

* OK, Buscaglia made the mistakes, but how did the articles make it into the Sun-Times?…

…Adding… Sun-Times Guild…

The Sun-Times Guild is aware of the third-party “summer guide” content in the Sunday, May 18 edition of the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper.

This was a syndicated section produced externally without the knowledge of the members of our newsroom.

We take great pride in the union-produced journalism that goes into the respected pages of our newspaper and on our website. We’re deeply disturbed that AI-generated content was printed alongside our work.

The fact that it was sixty-plus pages of this “content” is very concerning — primarily for our relationship with our audience but also for our union’s jurisdiction.

Our members go to great lengths to build trust with our sources and communities and are horrified by this slop syndication.

We call on Chicago Public Media management to do everything it can to prevent repeating this disaster in the future.

…Adding… The Sun-Times…

Our partner confirmed that a freelancer used an AI agent to write the article. This should be a learning moment for all of journalism that our work is valued because of the relationship our very real, human reporters and editors have with our audiences.

At Chicago Public Media, we are proud of our credible, independent journalism created for and by people. And part of the journalistic process is a commitment to acknowledging mistakes. It is unacceptable that this content was inaccurate, and it is equally unacceptable that we did not make it clear to readers that the section was produced outside the Sun-Times newsroom. Our audiences expect content with our name on it to meet our editorial standards.

What we are doing

- Subscribers will not be charged for this premium edition.
- The section is being removed from our e-paper version and will be replaced with this note.
- We are updating our policies to ensure that all such third-party licensed editorial content meets the same editorial standards as content we create ourselves.
- Moving forward, we will explicitly identify third-party licensed editorial content and ensure transparency about its origin.
- We are reviewing our relationship with this national content partner to ensure that mistakes of this nature no longer happen.

We are committed to making sure this never happens again. We know that there is work to be done to provide more answers and transparency around the production and publication of this section, and will share additional updates in the coming days.

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Completely unclear on the concept (Updated)

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Freedom Caucus member and likely gubernatorial candidate doesn’t understand how numbers work…

The Chalkbeat story is here.

* As we’ve discussed many, many times before, Illinois’ proficiency standards are higher than almost all other states…

Illinois has some of the most rigorous learning standards in the nation: ranking fourth most rigorous for 4th grade reading and fifth most rigorous for 8th grade reading. In Illinois, a student needs to earn a level of 4 or 5 to be considered proficient. In comparison, the rigor of Florida’s standards ranks 39th and 42nd, respectively, and a student only needs to earn a level 3 on the state assessment to be considered proficient.

We simply set the bar much higher for our kids. So, when those students don’t clear that high bar, they’re labeled as not proficient, but they would be labeled as proficient in lots of other states.

* “Other states like Mississippi are getting better results,” Wilhour said. Nonsense! Not even close. That’s just plain ridiculous. From the National Assessment of Educational Progress…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has periodically published reports using results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to compare the proficiency standards states and jurisdictions set for their students. The latest report highlights the results of mapping state proficiency standards onto the NAEP scales using state/jurisdiction assessment results from the 2021–22 school year and the 2022 NAEP assessments for public schools.

* The NAEP did an apples to apples comparison and found that Illinois was third highest in the nation for 8th Grade math, while Mississippi was third from the bottom.

According to the NAEP, Illinois was second highest in 8th Grade reading, while Mississippi was fourth from the bottom.

Fourth grade math? Illinois was number one. Mississippi was 15th.

Fourth grade reading? Illinois was fourth and Mississippi was 22nd.

Stop insulting our school kids, Blaine. After all, they appear to be better at both math and reading comprehension than you.

…Adding… Rep. Wilhour…

Two things are abundantly clear: Illinois government schools are struggling with proficiency and we spend a tremendous amount of money.

Will lowering proficiency standards help more students read or do math proficiently? […]

The answer is no. It’s a misdirection designed to deflect negative and necessary attention. We have a proficiency crisis in our government schools.

Illinois low state scores are in line with the low scores on national assessments-either way it’s a failure.

We can either strive for excellence and accountability or we can move the goalposts.

As for Mississippi, it is well documented that the literacy rates, which were extremely poor, are increasing at a pace that is worthy of study-for many reasons. They are also doing so at a fraction of the money spent.

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