Wikipedia editor’s mothers let them stay up all night to debate whether Cnet was a real news organisation after one of them read a story about AI-generated content being used by the organisation. Like most Wackypedia “debates”, the issue was not the subject but whether the editors thought they were more important than the news agency they were knifing.
For those who came in late, Wackypedia keeps a page called “Reliable sources/Perennial sources” that includes a chart featuring news publications and their reliability ratings from Wikipedia’s perspective.
After the CNET news broke in January 2023, Wikipedia editors started a discussion thread about the publication on the Reliable Sources project page.
“CNET, usually regarded as an ordinary tech RS [reliable source], has started experimentally running AI-generated articles, which are riddled with errors,” wrote a Wikipedia editor named David Gerard.
However, Gerard’s central problem was that not only had CNET’s use of AI been limited, but neither he nor any of the other Wackypedia editors had ever seen any AI-generated news.
But that never let Wikipedia editors conduct a good old-fashioned witch hunt, mainly if it would make them feel important.
After other editors agreed, they began downgrading CNET’s reliability rating.
Wikipedia’s Perennial Sources list currently features three entries for CNET broken into three time periods: (1) before October 2020, when Wikipedia considered CNET a “generally reliable” source; (2) between October 2020 and the present. When Wikipedia notes that the site was acquired by Red Ventures in October 2020, “leading to a deterioration in editorial standards” and saying there is no consensus about reliability; and (3) between November 2022 and January 2023, when Wikipedia considers CNET “generally unreliable” because the site began using an AI tool “to generate articles riddled with factual inaccuracies and affiliate links rapidly.”
A CNET spokesperson said, "CNET is the world’s largest provider of unbiased tech-focused news and advice. We have been trusted for nearly 30 years because of our rigorous editorial and product review standards. It is important to clarify that CNET is not actively using AI to create new content. While we have no specific plans to restart, any future initiatives would follow our public AI policy.”
So, like many things, it is just something that is taking place in Wackypedia editor’s heads.
Disclaimer: Wackypedia has twice debated if Fudzilla existed and decided that we don’t after a debate led by one guy who listed his expertise as being a fake penis expert and another without a degree who claimed to be a doctor.