An old Apple blog and its former authors have become the latest victims of ai-written garbage. TUAW (“The Unofficial Apple Weblog”) was shut down by AOL in 2015, but last year a new owner took over the domain and began publishing articles under the names of former authors. who have not worked there for more than a decade. And that new owner, who also appears to run other ai sludge websites, appears to be trying to hide.
Christina Warren, who left a long career in tech journalism to join Microsoft and then GitHub as a developer advocate, shared screenshots of what was happening. on TuesdayIn the images, you can see that Warren has apparently been writing new posts starting in July, although he has not worked on LAUGH Since 2009, she confirms The edge.
Another screenshot showed Warren's name next to what appears to be an ai-generated photo and a generic bio, along with a list of other former TUAW writers, including Brett Terpstra, Chris Rawson and Chris Ullrich. listed authors Their photos were replaced with ai-generated images, tech-blog-tuaw-is-now-publishing-ai-articles-under-the-names-of-its-old-human-staff/”>404 Media reportsand many count 404 who have no involvement with the new website. ai-copy-recycled-bylines-in-stupid-seo-play”>Apple Insider Information confirmed that the name of its author, William Gallagher, was also inappropriately associated with the content by TUAW's new owner.
What's more, it appears the new TUAW is using generative ai to carelessly recreate the work of its former writers.
According to TUAW's “About Us” pageTUAW is now apparently owned by Web Orange Limited, which purchased the website “without its original content” from “Yahoo IP Holdings LLC” earlier this year.
So instead of that “original content”, the new TUAW has apparently used ai to plagiarize it, as can be easily seen by comparing Archived real TUAW publications at Engadget To those on the new website.
For example, let's take an extremely benign post about the iOS keyboard's Shift key changes in iOS 7.1. Here's the first paragraph from Erica Sadun's original:iOS 7.1's new Shift key icons are great“:
Today, when version 7.1 arrived, there were significant complaints on the TUAW channels. “Oh my god,” cried the mourners, “the world is ending: Apple has redesigned the Shift key icons!” Our own Dave Caolo even wrote about the change, saying that “it’s a nice change overall, but it will take some getting used to.”
What about the new TUAW? It has a different title: “iOS 7.1 update introduces attractive new icons for the Shift key”, a new author, “Matthew Wilson”, and an introduction that reads as if the same words had been run through a thesaurus:
When version 7.1 was released today, there was quite a stir among the TUAW team. “Oh my God,” they exclaimed, “the end is nigh: Apple has revamped the Shift key icons!” Our colleague Dave Caolo commented on the update, noting, “It’s a welcome change, but it will take some getting used to.”
Warren says she's well aware of zombie brands, but is still genuinely shocked that a shady new website owner would go so far as to steal writers' identities as well.
“I thought the worst that could happen would be like with MTV News “At that point, the files just disappeared, but I was faced with this paradox where what’s worse than not having any files is this bastardized version, this weird zombie corpse of something that looks like what it was but isn’t,” he says. The edge.
“I said, ‘Fuck you, really fuck you.’ You can quote me.” — Christina Warren
TUAW’s new owner isn’t trying to completely hide what it’s done: “Committed to revitalizing its legacy, the new team at Web Orange Limited meticulously rewrote the content of the archived versions available on archive.org, ensuring the preservation of TUAW’s rich history and updating it to meet modern standards and relevance,” the new TUAW’s “About Us” page says. We’ve reached out to Apollo Management Group, which purchased Yahoo’s assets in 2021, to better understand what Web Orange has acquired.
But the new TUAW has apparently decided that not all of its copying is justified. Since Warren’s posts (he tells us he also sent a “strongly worded email” threatening legal action), his byline at the new TUAW has been changed to “Mary Brown.” Similarly, Brett Terpstra is now “Paul Terpstra,” Chris Dawson is now “Kevin Hall,” and Chris Ullrich is “Matthew Wilson.”
On its website, Web Orange Limited describes himself as “an online advertising agency” based in Hong Kong that runs “some of the largest media sites on the Internet,” including iLoungeanother old Apple blog.
iLoungeIt has also re-emerged as a site that appears to host ai junk material disguised as human work. We discovered that the profile photos of its most prominent “authors” are stock images.
The image above of Lucy BennettFor example, she has also appeared on an iPhone case and as a model for an online dating website:
We found that iLounge Writer Samantha Wiley, who also has a stock image as her profile picture, posted three messages in three minutes earlier today. Author's page shows many instances where Wiley publishes multiple publications in an extremely short period of time. This is not unusual if you are a writer with multiple embargoes, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. x.com/editorlucyb”>Bennett and x.com/editorwiley”>Wiley I also have x accounts that only follow iLounge and contain no posts. (They also have similar x usernames: “editorlucyb” and “editorwiley.”)
Both also have Muck Rack Profiles who claim to have worked for other publications, but we found no evidence that Wiley ever wrote for The Baltimore Post either Houston Press As noted, we will be reaching out to Muck Rack for comment.
Soup.ioanother Web Orange website, has A “Jorgie Soto” whose archive profile picture was once seen advertising VoIP services:
Until today, iLoungeAbout me page identified its owner, and the owner of Web Orange Limited, as Haider Ali Khan, a “well-known Australian entrepreneur, investor, author and cybersecurity expert.” However, that page has now been scrubbed of all mentions of Khan and Khan's personal website The site that worked yesterday now displays an error message. The website owner did not respond to our email. Khan's name has also been removed from other Web Orange websites.
We have not yet positively linked Haider Ali Khan to a “Web Orange Limited,” but there is a company registered in Hong Kong under that name. Khan’s personal website also claims that he launched a web hosting company called Sudoly, which has It has since changed its name to OrangeHosta company that currently Appoints Haider Ali Kahn as CEOHaider Ali Kahn of OrangeHost is in Dubai, according to Your LinkedIn pageBut OrangeHost is a US company registered in Delaware, we confirm that.
Web Orange Limited also says it has worked with companies including Avast, Adobe, Cloudways, ExpressVPN and Hostinger, and we have reached out to them for comment on how they worked with the company.
Warren says she is relieved that she and her LAUGH The names of colleagues no longer appear in the new LAUGH website and no longer believes he needs to hire a lawyer. “What really pissed me off was attributing new content to these authors. That was what I didn’t expect.”
“Plagiarism… I don’t like it, but at the same time, you have to pick your battles,” he says.