A Florida news outlet was exposed as a fake media outlet built entirely on artificial intelligence-generated reporters and stolen content.
Journalists from The Florida Trib investigated and found the “South Florida Standard” site’s staff — including its editor-in-chief “Sofia Delgado” — were fictional, with AI-generated headshots and fabricated biographies, and no real human beings behind the bylines.
Much of the site’s content was taken from legitimate outlets such as Florida Politics, run through AI and republished under the fake reporters’ names.
Once exposed, the South Florida Standard’s administrators started removing staff bios before eventually taking the site down.
The Trib’s investigation traced the site to the Discoverability Co., a Philadelphia-based online reputation management firm founded by Drew Chapin, a former startup CEO who pleaded guilty to investor fraud in 2021.
They found similar fake “local news” outlets in South Carolina and California.
Chapin admitted to building 17 AI-driven news sites across the country, producing more than 3,500 URLs that attracted more than 44,000 visitors.
He also demonstrated how to create a fake local news site in just 15 minutes using a $10 domain and an AI prompt.
Experts warn that sham AI-generated news sites that spread misinformation are designed to deceive rather than inform and that such news sites pose a growing threat to American democracy, particularly with the midterm elections approaching and real news outlets shutting down.
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