--- title: "Beloved Local Newspapers Fired Staffers, Then Started Running AI Slop" description: "Alt-weekly publications like LA Weekly and the Village Voice have suddenly started running hundreds of articles listing OnlyFans porn." date: "2024-07-31" modified: "2024-07-31" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/newspaper-fired-staff-ai-slop" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai journalism" - "generative ai" - "the digest" --- # Beloved Local Newspapers Fired Staffers, Then Started Running AI Slop ![Alt-weekly publications like LA Weekly and the Village Voice have suddenly started running hundreds of articles listing OnlyFans porn.]() *\Image: Drew Angerer via Getty\* ## Porn Parade Death with dignity? Not in this AI age. In the latest horrifying turn in the slow-bleed demise of journalism, [*Wired* reports]() that several beloved alt-weeklies, including *LA Weekly* and *The Village Voice*, have suddenly started running a deluge of suspiciously similar listicles recommending porn models. The listicles are almost certainly generated by AI, and to make matters worse, are being presented to readers as real editorial content. At the New York-based *Village Voice* — which, with its ceasing of publication in 2017 but subsequent revival in 2021, embodies the harsh vicissitudes of publishing like no other — a new content category has appeared: "OnlyFans." Click the tab, and you're taken to a page that lists over *three hundred* OnlyFans listicles for every fetish under the Sun. It's something you might expect to see after clicking a shady pop-up, but is whiplash-inducing to witness on a site that once published Pulitzer Prize-winning writers. Adding to the shadiness, none of these articles feature any disclaimers that disclose they're anything other than normal articles — a grim example of how greedy publishers are laundering shoddy AI content through the reputations of journalistic outlets. ## Zero Input *LA Weekly* is owned by the same parent company as the *Village Voice*. Earlier this year, it suffered a round of [brutal layoffs]() that saw most of its editorial staff fired. Today, like its East Coast cousin, it also features an OnlyFans tab with hundreds of porn articles. The byline for most of these — on both sites — is listed as Daniela LaFave, an Austin-based SEO expert who declined to confirm to *Wired* whether she used AI to write the articles. RC Baker, the *Voice*'s only remaining editorial staffer, said the OnlyFans articles weren't his decision. "I handle only news and cultural reporting out of New York City," Baker told *Wired.* "I have nothing to do with OnlyFans. That content is handled by a separate team that is based, I believe, in LA." And *LA Weekly*'s editor is also out of the loop as well. "We weren't happy about it at all, and we were absolutely not involved in putting it up," editor-in-chief Darrick Rainey told *Wired*. ## Trending Botwards The hollowing out of publications big and small [in favor of AI content mills]() has been going on for years now. The articles they produce are often poorly written and [riddled with factual errors](), but this hasn't slowed the pivot towards relying on this automated junk, which is very good at gaming search engines, to make money off of cheap clicks. And if the fates of the *Voice* and *LA Weekly* are any indication, expect to see these schemes become bolder and more prevalent. "We're seeing an ever-increasing part of old media be reborn as AI-generated new media," Ali Shahriyari, CTO of the AI detection firm Reality Defender, told *Wired*. "Unfortunately, this means way less informational and newsworthy content and more SEO-focused 'slop' that really just wastes people's time and attention. Tracking these kinds of publications isn't even part of our day to day, yet we're seeing them pop up more and more." **More on AI:** *[Google's Latest Pitch for AI Is So Sad It Sounds Like a Spoof]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()