Syndicated AI book list ran in major papers with made-up titles

May 2025

A King Features syndicated summer reading list used AI and included nonexistent books. It appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times and one edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer before corrections and apologies.

Incident Details

Perpetrator:Syndication/Editorial

Severity:Facepalm

Blast Radius:Syndicated misinformation across multiple papers; reader trust impact; corrections issued.

Tech Stack

AI content generationSyndicationNewsroom CMS

References

Washington Post: Major newspapers ran a summer reading list. AI made up the books. ↗The Philadelphia Inquirer: King Features admits summer reading list was AI-generated ↗Chicago Sun-Times: AI-generated content in Sun-Times contained errors ↗