An old Apple blog and the blog\u2019s former authors have become the latest victims of AI-written sludge. TUAW (\u201cThe Unofficial Apple Weblog\u201d) was shut down by AOL in 2015<\/a>, but this past year, a new owner scooped up the domain and began posting articles under the bylines of former writers who haven\u2019t worked there for over a decade.<\/em> And that new owner, which also appears to run other AI sludge websites, seems to be trying to hide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Christina Warren, who left a long career in tech journalism to join Microsoft and later GitHub as a developer advocate, shared screenshots of what was happening on Tuesday<\/a>. In the images, you can see that Warren has apparently been writing new posts as of this July \u2014 even though she hasn\u2019t worked at TUAW<\/em> since 2009, she confirms to The Verge<\/em>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Another screenshot showed Warren\u2019s name listed next to what appears to be an AI-generated photo and a generic bio, alongside a list of other former TUAW writers, including Brett Terpstra, Chris Rawson, and Chris Ullrich. All of the listed authors<\/a> have had their photos replaced with AI-generated images, 404 Media<\/em> reports<\/a>, and many tell 404<\/em> that they have no involvement with the new website. AppleInsider<\/em> confirmed<\/a> that its author William Gallagher\u2019s name was inappropriately attached to content by TUAW\u2019s new owner as well. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n What\u2019s more, it appears the new TUAW is using generative AI to sloppily recreate the work of its former writers. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to TUAW\u2019s \u201cAbout Us\u201d page<\/a>, TUAW is now apparently owned by Web Orange Limited, which bought the website \u201cwithout its original content\u201d from \u201cYahoo IP Holdings LLC\u201d earlier this year. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n So, instead of that \u201coriginal content,\u201d the new TUAW has seemingly used AI to plagiarize it \u2014 as you can easily see by comparing actual archived TUAW posts at Engadget<\/em><\/a> <\/em>to ones on the new website.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n For example, take an extremely benign post about changes to the iOS keyboard\u2019s shift key in iOS 7.1. Here\u2019s the first paragraph from Erica Sadun\u2019s original \u201ciOS 7.1\u2019s new shift key icons are rad<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Today, as 7.1 rolled in, major complainage could be heard echoing through the TUAW back channels. \u201cOMG,\u201d the afflicted cried, \u201cThe world is at an end \u2014 Apple has redesigned the shift key icons!\u201d Our very own Dave Caolo even wrote about the change, saying that \u201cIt\u2019s a good change overall but will take some getting used to.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n On the new TUAW? It has a different headline, \u201ciOS 7.1 Update Introduces Cool New Shift Key Icons<\/a>,\u201d a new author, \u201cMatthew Wilson,\u201d and an intro that reads as if the same words were run through a thesaurus:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As version 7.1 was unveiled today, there was a noticeable stir among the TUAW team. \u201cOMG,\u201d they exclaimed, \u201cThe end is nigh \u2014 Apple has revamped the shift key icons!\u201d Our colleague Dave Caolo commented on the update, noting, \u201cIt\u2019s a positive adjustment but it\u2019ll require some getting used to.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Warren says she\u2019s well aware of zombie brands but that she\u2019s still genuinely shocked that a shady new website owner would go so far as to steal writers\u2019 identities, too. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI thought the worst thing that could happen would be like with MTV News<\/em><\/a> where the archives just go away, but I was faced with this paradox where what\u2019s worse than not having any archive at all is this bastardized version, this weird zombie corpse of a thing that looks like what it was but isn\u2019t,\u201d she tells The Verge<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018Fuck you, genuinely fuck you.\u2019 You can quote me on that.\u201d \u2014 Christina Warren<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n TUAW\u2019s new owner isn\u2019t entirely trying to hide what they\u2019ve done: \u201cWith a commitment to revitalize its legacy, the new team at Web Orange Limited meticulously rewrote the content from archived versions available on archive.org, ensuring the preservation of TUAW\u2019s rich history while updating it to meet modern standards and relevance,\u201d the new TUAW\u2019s \u201cAbout Us\u201d page says. We\u2019ve reached out to Apollo Management Group, which purchased Yahoo\u2019s assets in 2021<\/a>, to better understand what Web Orange acquired.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But the new TUAW has apparently decided not all of its copying is justified, either. Since Warren\u2019s posts \u2014 she tells us she also sent a \u201cfirmly worded email\u201d threatening legal action\u2014 her author name on the new TUAW has been changed to \u201cMary Brown.\u201d Similarly, Brett Terpstra is now \u201cPaul Terpstra,\u201d Chris Dawson is now \u201cKevin Hall,\u201d and Chris Ullrich is \u201cMatthew Wilson.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n On its website, Web Orange Limited describes itself<\/a> as \u201can online advertising agency\u201d based in Hong Kong that manages \u201csome of the largest media sites on the internet,\u201d including iLounge<\/em>, another older Apple blog. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n iLounge<\/em>, too, has resurfaced as a site appearing to host AI sludge masquerading as the work of humans. We discovered the profile pictures of its most prominent \u201cauthors\u201d are stock images. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n The above image of Lucy Bennett<\/a>, for example, has also appeared on an iPhone case and as a model for an online dating website: <\/p>\n<\/div>\n We found that iLounge<\/em> writer Samantha Wiley \u2014 who also has a stock image as a profile pic \u2014 published three posts in three minutes earlier today. Wiley\u2019s author page<\/a> shows many instances of Wiley publishing multiple posts in an extremely short amount of time. Not unusual if you\u2019re a writer with multiple embargoes, but that doesn\u2019t appear to be the case here. Bennett<\/a> and Wiley<\/a> also have X accounts that only follow iLounge<\/em> and contain no posts. (They also have similar X usernames: \u201ceditorlucyb\u201d and \u201ceditorwiley.\u201d) <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Both also have Muck Rack profiles<\/a> that claim they\u2019ve worked for other publications, but we found no evidence of Wiley writing for The Baltimore Post <\/em>or Houston Press <\/em>as stated. We\u2019re reaching out to Muck Rack for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Soup.io<\/a>, another Web Orange website, has a \u201cJorgie Soto\u201d<\/a> whose stock image profile pic was once seen advertising VoIP services:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Until today, iLounge<\/em>\u2019s own about page<\/a> identified its owner, and the owner of Web Orange Limited, as Haider Ali Khan, a \u201cwell-known Australian entrepreneur, investor, author, and cyber security expert.\u201d However, that page has now been scrubbed of all mentions of Khan, and the personal website for Khan<\/a> that worked yesterday now displays an error message. The owner of the website did not reply to our email. Khan\u2019s name has been scrubbed from other Web Orange websites as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n We have not yet positively linked a Haider Ali Khan to a \u201cWeb Orange Limited,\u201d but there is a company registered in Hong Kong by that name. Khan\u2019s personal website also stated he launched a web hosting company called Sudoly, though, which has since been rebranded to OrangeHost<\/a>, a company that currently lists Haider Ali Kahn as CEO<\/a>. OrangeHost\u2019s Haider Ali Kahn is in Dubai, according to his LinkedIn page<\/a>. But OrangeHost is a US company registered in Delaware, we confirmed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Web Orange Limited also says it has worked with companies like Avast, Adobe, Cloudways, ExpressVPN, and Hostinger, and we\u2019ve reached out to them for comment on how they worked with the company.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Warren says she\u2019s feeling relieved that her and her TUAW<\/em> colleagues\u2019 names no longer appear on the new TUAW<\/em> website, and she no longer thinks she\u2019ll need to get a lawyer involved. \u201cWhat really made me angry was attributing net new content to these authors. That was the thing I didn\u2019t expect.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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