Apple’s first tech bloggers are shocked to discover their name and work have been zombified by AI

A former Apple blog and its former authors have become the latest victims of AI-written garbage. TUAW (“The Unofficial Apple Weblog”) was closed by AOL in 2015, but last year, a new owner acquired the domain and began posting articles under the bylines of former writers who haven’t worked there in over a decade. And this new owner, who also appears to run other AI garbage sites, appears to be trying to hide.

Christina Warren, who left a long career in technology journalism to join Microsoft and later GitHub as a developer advocate, shared screenshots of what was happening on Tuesday. In the screenshots, you can see that Warren has apparently been writing new posts since July of this year – even though she hasn’t worked on TUAW since 2009, she confirms On the edge.

Another screenshot showed Warren’s name listed next to what appears to be an AI-generated photo and generic bio, alongside a list of other former TUAW writers, including Brett Terpstra, Chris Rawson, and Chris Ullrich. All the listed authors had their photos replaced with AI-generated images, 404 Media reportsand many say 404 that they have no involvement with the new site. AppleInsider confirmed that the name of its author William Gallagher was also wrongly attached to the content by the new owner of TUAW.

What’s more, it appears that the new TUAW is using generative AI to sloppily recreate the work of its former writers.

According to TUAW’s “About Us” pageTUAW is now apparently owned by Web Orange Limited, which purchased the site “without its original content” from “Yahoo IP Holdings LLC” earlier this year.

So instead of this “original content”, the new TUAW apparently used AI to plagiarize it – as you can easily see by comparing TUAW archived real posts on Engagement for those on the new site.

For example, see an extremely benign post about changes to the iOS keyboard Shift key in iOS 7.1. Here is the first paragraph of the original by Erica Sadun “iOS 7.1’s New Shift Key Icons Are Awesome”:

Today, with the arrival of 7.1, major complaints could be heard echoing through TUAW’s secondary channels. “My God,” cried the afflicted, “The world is at the end – Apple has redesigned the Shift key icons!” Our own Dave Caolo even wrote about the change, saying that “It’s a good change overall, but it will take some getting used to.”

In the new TUAW? It has a different title, “iOS 7.1 update introduces cool new Shift key icons,” a new author, “Matthew Wilson,” and an introduction that sounds like the same words were read from a thesaurus:

With the release of version 7.1 today, there has been a noticeable buzz among the TUAW team. “My God,” they exclaimed, “The end is near – Apple has revamped the Shift key icons!” Our colleague Dave Caolo commented on the update, noting: “It’s a positive adjustment, but it will take some getting used to.”

Warren says she’s no stranger to zombie brands, but she’s still genuinely shocked that a shady new site owner would go so far as to steal writers’ identities as well.

“I thought the worst thing that could happen would be with MTV News where files just disappear, but I came across this paradox where what’s worse than having no files at all is this bastardized version, this strange zombie corpse of a thing that looks like what it was, but isn’t,” she says. On the edge.

The new owner of the TUAW isn’t trying to completely hide what he’s done: “With a commitment to revitalizing its legacy, the new team at Web Orange Limited has meticulously rewrote the content of the archived versions available at archive.org, ensuring the preservation of the TUAW’s rich history and at the same time update it to meet modern standards and relevance,” says TUAW’s new “About Us” page. We reached out to Apollo Management Group, which purchased Yahoo’s assets in 2021, to better understand what Web Orange acquired.

But the new TUAW has apparently decided that not all of its copies are justified. Since Warren’s posts – she tells us she also sent a “strongly worded email” threatening legal action – her author name on the new TUAW has been changed to “Mary Brown.” Likewise, Brett Terpstra is now “Paul Terpstra,” Chris Dawson is now “Kevin Hall,” and Chris Ullrich is “Matthew Wilson.”

On their website, Web Orange Limited describe yourself as “an online advertising agency” based in Hong Kong that runs “some of the largest media sites on the Internet,” including iLoungeanother old Apple blog.

iLounge, has also resurfaced as a site that appears to host AI sludge disguised as the work of humans. We discovered that the profile photos of their most prominent “authors” are stock images.

The image above Lucy Bennetfor example, it has also appeared on an iPhone case and as a model for an online dating site:

We found this iLounge writer Samantha Wiley — who also has a stock image as her profile picture — published three posts in three minutes earlier today. Wiley’s author page shows many instances of Wiley publishing multiple posts in an extremely short period of time. It’s not uncommon if you’re a writer with multiple embargoes, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Bennett It is Wiley There are also X accounts that only follow iLounge and contains no posts. (They also have similar X usernames: “editorlucyb” and “editorwiley.”)

Both also have Muck Rack Profiles who claim they worked for other publications, but we found no evidence of Wiley writing for The Baltimore Post or Houston Press as stated. We are reaching out to Muck Rack for comment.

Soup.ioanother Orange website, has a “Jorgie Soto” whose stock profile photo has been seen advertising VoIP services:

Until today, iLoungethe about page itself identified its owner, and owner of Web Orange Limited, as Haider Ali Khan, a “well-known Australian businessman, investor, author and cybersecurity expert”. However, that page has now been scrubbed of all mention of Khan, and Khan’s personal website that worked yesterday now displays an error message. The site owner did not respond to our email. Khan’s name has also been deleted from other Orange Web sites.

We have not yet positively associated a Haider Ali Khan with a “Web Orange Limited”, but there is a company registered in Hong Kong with that name. Khan’s personal website also stated that he has launched a hosting company called Sudoly, which has it has since been renamed to OrangeHostcompany that currently lists Haider Ali Kahn as CEO. OrangeHost’s Haider Ali Kahn is in Dubai, according to your LinkedIn page. But OrangeHost is a US company registered in Delaware, we confirm.

Web Orange Limited also claims that it has worked with companies such as Avast, Adobe, Cloudways, ExpressVPN and Hostinger, and we reached out to them to comment on how they worked with the company.

Warren says she’s feeling relieved for her and she TUAW colleagues’ names no longer appear in the new TUAW website, and she no longer thinks she will need to involve a lawyer. “What really irritated me was attributing new content to these authors. That was what I didn’t expect.”

“The plagiarism… I don’t love it, but at the same time you have to pick your battles,” she says.