Overview

• The Chicago Sun-Times' summer reading supplement included at least 10 fabricated book titles falsely attributed to well-known authors like Isabel Allende and Andy Weir.
• Marco Buscaglia, the creator of the list, admitted to using AI to generate the content but failed to verify its accuracy, calling the oversight a personal failure.
• An Ars Technica review found only five of the 15 recommended books in the list were real, with the rest being AI-generated confabulations.
• The Sun-Times stated via its Bluesky account that the list was not approved by the newsroom and pledged to investigate how the content was published.
• The incident highlights broader challenges of integrating AI tools in journalism, particularly around accuracy, verification, and maintaining public trust.