Technology AI, Science and New Things
AI “experts” offering written quotes for journalists are using PR sites to boost the prominence of their companies.
Rob Waugh, who investigated the story for Press Gazette, tells Tortoise he identified ten AI experts giving advice on behalf of sex toy, CBD and vape firms owned by the same company.
Waugh said he became suspicious when he was contacted on behalf of the sex toy site Peaches and Screams by Barbara Santini, a psychotherapist who has not been confirmed as an AI bot but appears not to be available for appointments nor to have any social media presence.
Santini has been quoted in pieces that have run in the Guardian, the Sun, MailOnline and on the BBC.
Confirmed bots include “London GP” Charlotte Cremers, quoted in the Sun and the Daily Express as an expert from Peaches and Screams but not listed in the general medical register; a “cancer survivor” called Kimberly Shaw who was outed as AI by Business Insider; and Rebecca Leigh, a “biochemist and science educator” who was quoted in Fortune magazine.
Maybe Michael Gove was right to be suspicious of experts.
