I wrote The Future of Truth and then found to my alarm it contained AI-hallucinated quotes. I’ve chosen to fight back
My book went through five editorial rounds and more than 4,000 tracked changes, but I later discovered it had 26 quotes that didn't hold up under scrutiny.
On Sunday, May 17, 2026, author Steve, an experienced media professional, received an email from Ben Mullin, a reporter at The New York Times. The email contained a quote from an anonymous DARPA researcher, which Ben suspected was AI-generated. By the end of the day, The Times published an article titled "The Future of Truth Contains Quotes Made Up by A.I."
Steve, who had been researching the impact of AI on truth for his upcoming book, had always believed that truth was irrefutable. However, he soon discovered that AI could generate believable falsehoods, which posed a significant challenge in the editing process.
As the book went through five rounds of editorial revisions, AI-generated errors were caught and corrected. However, some errors managed to survive, leading to a significant backlash from readers when Ben Mullin uncovered some of the incorrect quotes. Despite the negative response, Steve refused to back down and instead worked with his publisher, BenBella Books, to correct the errors.
A second edition of "The Future of Truth" was released on October 6, with an Author's Note explaining the AI-generated errors. Steve remains committed to promoting truth and technology's impact on it, even as AI continues to evolve and present new challenges.
Written by urgent.news from Fortune's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
