A group of WoW redditors successfully trolled a news website
A group of World of Warcraft (WoW) redditors successfully trolled a news website by getting a completely made-up change to WoW, dubbed ‘Glorbo,’ added to the MMORPG by artificially intelligent software. The news website that fell for the trap is Zleague.gg, which claims to be “the gaming super app.”
The article, titled “World of Warcraft (WoW) players excited for Glorbo’s introduction,” features quotes from a redditor who participated in the ruse, and discusses non-existent features set to be added to WoW in the future, such as a new character called Glorbo and a “Glorbo’s Throne” battleground.
“Glorbo will be the new addition to WoW and the players are excited about his imminent appearance,” the article reads. “People are looking forward to playing with him and his unique abilities. Some players are even talking about using him in PvP.”
The redditor who orchestrated the prank, u/kaefer_kriegerin, laid the trap to embarrass news websites that scrape Reddit forums for content. It was a clever trap, with Zleague being caught scraping the fake discussions, and eventually deleting all WoW-related posts.
However, some of their fake articles, including one about AI-generating content, were archived by the Wayback Machine. The incident highlights the threat faced by journalists from corporations that prioritize AI-generated content for profit.
Just last month, GAMURS Group, which owns sites including Anime Times, Anime Herald, and Anime Vice, posted a job listing for an AI editor to create hundreds of articles per week. We at the Gizmodo Media Group Union oppose the use of AI-generated content on news websites and believe it should be addressed by journalists’ unions globally.
The redditors’ prank exposes the limitations of AI in journalism and critical thinking. While it may be amusing to see the bot get duped, it also sheds light on the larger issue of AI’s impact on the quality of news, especially as more and more companies turn to automation to generate content.
As we discussed in a previous article, AI should not be masquerading as human authors on websites. Readers should refrain from interacting with these sites that profit from clicks. It’s important to voice concerns to website owners about the use of AI-generated content on their sites.
This World of Warcraft article is the perfect example of why we need to be aware of the harmful effects of AI on news and entertainment sites.
