Sports Illustrated CEO fired after AI scandal

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES — The Arena Group, publisher of iconic sports magazine Sports Illustrated, has fired its chief executive officer (CEO) Ross Levinsohn after a major artificial intelligence (AI) debacle.

An Arena Group spokesperson confirmed Levinsohn’s termination to CNN but declined to provide further details. However, the move came soon after Sports Illustrated was embroiled in controversy for allegedly using AI to generate fake author names and photos for articles on its website.

Levinsohn, who served as CEO for 3 years, has been replaced immediately by interim chief Manoj Bhargava, the billionaire founder of energy drink company 5-Hour Energy. Bhargava owns a majority stake in The Arena Group.

The shakeup also saw three other Arena Group executives—operations president Andrew Kraft, media president Rob Barrett, and counsel Julie Fenster—lose their jobs less than a week ago.

While The Arena Group denied that the stories themselves were AI-written, it admitted that questionable content had been provided by third-party content provider AdVon Commerce and included AI-generated author identities. AdVon has claimed its articles were written by humans.