Chicago Sun-Times prints AI-hallucinated book list featuring books that don't exist in syndicated summer supplement

A syndicated 64-page summer supplement published in the Chicago Sun-Times and Philadelphia Inquirer included a summer reading list full of books that simply do not exist — titles and summaries alike conjured entirely by AI. Freelance writer Marco Buscaglia, working for King Features Syndicate (a Hearst unit), admitted he "just kind of republished this list that [an AI program] spit out" without fact-checking it, exposing two major newspapers to widespread public mockery.

Buscaglia accepted blame and his subsequent firing, while King Features claimed his AI use violated their "strict policy." The Sun-Times' parent, Chicago Public Media, pulled the section from its e-paper, promised refunds to print subscribers, and launched an investigation into other content in the section — since Buscaglia acknowledged using AI elsewhere in the supplement and couldn't guarantee any of it was properly vetted. The Sun-Times Guild summed it up neatly, condemning the "slop syndication."