Meet AdVon, the AI-Powered Content Monster Infecting the Media Industry

🌈 Abstract

The article investigates a company called AdVon Commerce, which has been accused of using fake bylines and AI-generated content to produce low-quality product reviews for prominent publications like USA Today, Sports Illustrated, and various McClatchy newspapers. The article delves into AdVon's practices, including its use of AI to generate articles, its relationship with a sister company called SellerRocket that charges brands to be featured in these reviews, and the company's attempts to deflect criticism by attributing content to real people with ties to AdVon's leadership.

🙋 Q&A

[01] AdVon's Use of AI

1. What evidence is presented that AdVon used AI to generate content?

• A former AdVon worker said the company started using AI for content generation and paid even less than before for human writers to "polish" the AI-generated drafts.
• An AdVon training video showed the company's AI software, MEL, generating entire product review articles with minimal human input.
• Internal AdVon documentation labeled some articles as being "AI" source.
• Multiple former AdVon employees confirmed the company was using AI to generate content.

2. How did AdVon try to hide the use of AI?

• AdVon initially denied using AI for any of its publishing partners, but later acknowledged using AI "responsibly in combination with human writers and editors."
• AdVon provided edit history screenshots that appeared to show articles being written quickly, which the company claimed was from copying and pasting text, rather than AI generation.
• AdVon claimed its MEL AI tool was not operational until 2023, but evidence from former employees' LinkedIn profiles suggested they were working on AI content as early as 2021.

[02] AdVon's Fake Bylines

1. What did AdVon do with fake bylines and author profiles?

• AdVon created fake writer personas with fictional biographies and AI-generated profile pictures to byline the content it produced.
• The company would often reuse the same fake writers across multiple publications.
• After the fake bylines were exposed, AdVon started attributing content to real people with ties to the company's leadership, such as the CEO's wife and mother.

2. How did the fake bylines and author profiles impact the credibility of the content?

• The use of fake bylines and AI-generated profiles undermined the credibility of the product reviews, making it difficult for readers to trust the authenticity of the content.
• This practice of "site reputation abuse" blurred the line between journalism and advertising, rendering basic questions about the writers' identities increasingly unclear.

[03] AdVon's Relationship with SellerRocket

1. What is the connection between AdVon and SellerRocket?

• AdVon's CEO Ben Faw and president Eric Spurling also quietly operate another company called SellerRocket, which charges Amazon product sellers to be featured in the same publications where AdVon publishes product reviews.
• SellerRocket employees openly discussed how their service helps sellers get their products featured in authoritative publications like Sports Illustrated, which they believe helps drive sales.
• The two companies are so intertwined that AdVon's content management system includes features related to SellerRocket's services.

2. How does this relationship raise ethical concerns?

• The fact that sellers can pay to be featured in "product reviews" without disclosure raises questions about the independence and objectivity of the content.
• This blurs the line between editorial and advertising, potentially misleading readers about the nature of the recommendations.

[04] Impact on the Publishing Industry

1. How have other publications responded to the AdVon scandal?

• Several publications, including USA Today, Sports Illustrated, McClatchy newspapers, the Los Angeles Times, and Yoga Journal, have terminated their relationships with AdVon after discovering the issues with its content.
• The scandal has become a cautionary tale for the publishing industry, highlighting the risks of allowing low-quality, AI-generated content to be published under fake bylines.

2. What are the broader implications for the publishing industry?

• The AdVon case demonstrates the potential for unscrupulous actors to exploit AI technology to flood the internet with low-quality, misleading content at scale.
• This threatens to undermine trust in the media industry and the credibility of online content, unless platforms and publishers can find ways to effectively separate high-quality, authentic journalism from AI-generated spam.