I didn't find any English articles about this, so here's a summary what happened:

  • Mario Voigt, the minister-president (head of a German state government) of Thuringia, published an op-ed in the German conservative newspaper "Welt", that sounded suspiciously like AI slop, so journalists started investigating
  • They found out that the Welt op-ed, another op-ed in "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (FAZ) and several speeches he gave (including a speech for a Holocaust memorial) were completely AI generated
  • The FAZ op-ed contained quotes of three scientists that were completely made up. After Voigt was confronted by the newspaper, his office just replied with "AI is the future" bullshit instead of answering the questions, so the newspaper withdrew the op-ed and published a statement (also only in German: https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/medien-und-film/medienpolitik/zum-ki-verdacht-bei-gastbeitrag-von-mario-voigt-200917046.html)

In the aftermath, some people looked closer at the speeches and texts of other politicians and journalists:

[–] 4 points 5 months ago*

the main source is "Apollo News", wich is a right wing extremist shitrag

edit: Apollo also didn't disclose the "leaked" document, so there's a very high probability that this is completely made up

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  • [–] 47 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    just like the softdrink company that changed their name to "long blockchain iced tea" a couple of years ago, their shares soared 300% before tanking completely

    gawd, i hope this bubble pops soon

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