It's an AI hoax news story.
Oh Dear!
https://metro.co.uk/2023/05/14/edito...-tan-18782439/
The Irish Times believes it was the victim of an AI hoax after publishing an opinion piece that claimed Irish people wear too much fake tan.
The newspaper said it was 'genuinely sorry' for the op-ed, which they think may have been produced 'at least in part' using artificial intelligence.
The piece, entitled 'Irish women's obsession with fake tan is problematic' appeared on The Irish Times' website on Thursday morning.
The name of the author was given as Adriana Acosta-Cortez, who was described as a 29-year-old healthcare administrator from Ecuador living in north Dublin.
A photo of the apparent author accompanied the article.
The piece discussed the widespread use of fake tan in Ireland, suggesting it was a form of cultural appropriation.
But on Friday afternoon, a number of people on social media questioned whether the photo and the name of the writer were those of a real person.
By 5.30pm that day the body of the piece had been taken down and in its place, under the headline, it said: `The text of this article has been removed pending checks.'
The newspaper's editor, Ruadhan Mac Cormaic, wrote in a letter on Sunday that the paper had fallen victim to a deliberate deception and does not 'take this lightly'.
He said: 'It was a breach of the trust between The Irish Times and its readers, and we are genuinely sorry.
'The incident has highlighted a gap in our pre-publication procedures. We need to make them more robust - and we will.'
Mr Mac Cormaic said the incident highlighted one of the challenges raised by generative AI for news organisations.
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