The magazine had repeatedly published articles whose authors could not be found online outside the Sports Illustrated website.
During the course of Futurism’s reporting, some of the alleged Sports Illustrated writers mysteriously vanished from the publication’s website — and their articles began appearing under the names of different authors who similarly didn’t appear to exist online and whose likenesses were also being sold on AI headshot marketplaces.
Following the publication of the report, a spokesperson for The Arena Group — which has operated and licensed Sports Illustrated since 2019 — told CNN that the deleted product review articles had been created by a third-party company, AdVon Commerce.
