Arena Group announced in a statement that Ross Levinsohn was let go "to improve the operational efficiency and revenue" of the business. It coincides with a larger purging of senior executives that the corporation has carried out since the crisis surfaced. As CEO, Manoj Bhargava will assume the role.
However, Mr. Levinsohn's dismissal "hadabsolutely nothing to do with the AI issue at all," according to a representative for Mr. Bhargava, the creator of the 5-Hour Energy drink, who talked with the BBC. He emphasized that the change was a result of continuous efforts to make the business better. However, this follows the dismissal of three key executives by the Arena Group last week: Julie Fenster, corporate counsel, and president of media Rob Barrett and Andrew Kraft, who served as chief operational officer. The disclosure was made a month after it was discovered by tech news source Futurism that Sports Illustrated had published multiple pieces including fictitious author identities and headshots from an artificial intelligence website
The magazine removed the content but disputed the report's accuracy, while launching an internal investigation.
Arena Group licensed the content from a third-party company, Advon Commerce, a company spokesperson said in a statement. Advon Commerce is an e-commerce company that works with retailers and publishers.
In its statement last month, Arena Group claimed that Advon Commerce had assured them "that all of the articles in question were written and edited by humans" and that the e-commerce firm regularly uses "counter-plagiarism and counter-AI software".
As for the fake names, the group said writers were allowed to use pseudonyms "in certain articles" to protect their privacy.
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