# Chicago Sun-Times ran an AI-generated summer reading list where only 5 of 15 books were real > In May 2025 the Chicago Sun-Times published a syndicated summer special section whose 'reading list' recommended books that do not exist; independent newsrooms found only five of the 15 titles were real, the list was AI-generated by a freelancer and licensed via King Features (Hearst), and Chicago Public Media's CEO acknowledged the error and told subscribers they would not be charged. - Verification status: verified - Case type: deployment - Provider: King Features (a division of Hearst Newspapers); list produced by freelancer Marco Buscaglia using an unnamed AI tool - Client: Chicago Sun-Times (Chicago Public Media), Media / Newspaper publishing (named) - Sector: media / US / marketing - Verified on: 2026-08-26 - Canonical URL: https://theinternetninja.com/stories/chicago-sun-times-ai-fabricated-summer-reading-list-10-of-15-fake-books-king-features-2025/ - Source: The Internet Ninja (theinternetninja.com), independent verified-proof platform ## Outcomes | Metric | Before | After | | --- | --- | --- | | Real titles on the 15-book list: only 5 of 15 real; 10 fake, authors real (Sun-Times newsroom review; NPR/CBC concur) | | | | How it was produced: AI-generated by a freelancer, syndicated via King Features/Hearst, not fact-checked | | | | Publisher response: CEO acknowledged the error; subscribers not charged for the special edition | | | ## Verification method Three independent newsrooms (NPR, CBC, NBC News) carry the fabricated-title count and the syndication/AI-generation facts; the Chicago Public Media / Sun-Times CEO op-ed is first-party for the acknowledgment, the licensing chain and the no-charge decision. All quotes verified verbatim (tools/quotecheck.py) against local captures in sources/; dossier carries Wayback snapshots per source. The specific AI product is not named in any first-party account and is not asserted here. ## Full case file ## What happened In May 2025 the Chicago Sun-Times published a syndicated summer special section that included a "summer reading list" recommending books that do not exist, attributed to real, well-known authors. The Sun-Times' own newsroom review later put the exact count on the record, finding that the section's "Summer reading list for 2025," on page 62, "recommended 15 book titles with reviews, though 10 of the titles were fake while the authors were real." ([source](https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2025/05/29/special-section-king-fake-book-list-errors-sun-times-review)). Independent newsrooms reviewing the artifact reached the same count: NPR reported that "Only five of the 15 titles on the list are real." ([source](https://www.npr.org/2025/05/20/nx-s1-5405022/fake-summer-reading-list-ai)). CBC News, reviewing the same list, reported that "Only the last five books on the list of 15 are real, and penned by the correct authors." ([source](https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/chicago-sun-times-ai-book-list-1.7539016)) and that "a quick search of the 15 books in the list show that nine simply do not exist." ([source](https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/chicago-sun-times-ai-book-list-1.7539016)). A representative example placed a nonexistent title under the name of real Chilean-American novelist Isabel Allende, of whom CBC noted she "has written dozens of books ... but none of them are called Tidewater Dreams." ([source](https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/chicago-sun-times-ai-book-list-1.7539016)). ## How it got published The section was licensed content rather than newsroom-produced, and NPR reported that "the list was part of licensed content provided by King Features, a unit of the publisher Hearst Newspapers." ([source](https://www.npr.org/2025/05/20/nx-s1-5405022/fake-summer-reading-list-ai)). The list itself was generated with an AI tool by freelancer Marco Buscaglia, who according to CBC "confirmed that he failed to fact check what he gleaned using AI." ([source](https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/chicago-sun-times-ai-book-list-1.7539016)). ## The publisher's acknowledgment Chicago Public Media, the Sun-Times' parent, publicly acknowledged the error, with CEO Melissa Bell stating that "To our great disappointment, that list was created through the use of an AI tool and recommended books that do not exist," ([source](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/chicago-sun-admits-summer-book-guide-included-fake-ai-generated-titles-rcna208325)). In a later op-ed Bell wrote that "The section was licensed from the third-party content provider King Features, a division of Hearst." ([source](https://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/2025/05/29/lessons-apology-from-sun-times-ceo-ai-generated-book-list)), that "The Sun-Times and King Features do not allow reporters to use AI to write articles." ([source](https://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/2025/05/29/lessons-apology-from-sun-times-ceo-ai-generated-book-list)), and that "We also informed our subscribers that they would not be charged for that special edition." ([source](https://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/2025/05/29/lessons-apology-from-sun-times-ceo-ai-generated-book-list)). ## What this is (and is not) The exact fabrication count is now stated by the publisher itself: the Sun-Times' own newsroom review enumerates "10 of the titles were fake while the authors were real," an admission against interest rather than a solicited testimonial ([source](https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2025/05/29/special-section-king-fake-book-list-errors-sun-times-review)). The residual limit on that count is that the enumeration is the publisher's own review of a syndicated section it did not produce, corroborated here by three independent newsrooms (NPR, CBC, NBC) rather than by a preserved primary scan of the special-section artifact ([source](https://www.npr.org/2025/05/20/nx-s1-5405022/fake-summer-reading-list-ai)). The independent reviews also express the count differently — NPR says five of 15 are real (ten not real), while CBC says nine "simply do not exist" — a discrepancy shown here rather than merged, and the specific AI product is not named in any first-party account, so no product is asserted ([source](https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/chicago-sun-times-ai-book-list-1.7539016)). The same syndicated section also ran in the Philadelphia Inquirer, which is held out of the critical claims here to keep the named subject (the Sun-Times) clean. ## How this was verified - **Method:** Independent-press verification of a public AI-failure/accountability incident, anchored to a first-party primary. The exact fabricated-title count comes from the Chicago Sun-Times' own newsroom review (Tier 1, first party), corroborated by NPR and CBC's independent reviews (Tier 2); the syndication-via-King-Features and AI-generation facts from NPR and CBC (Tier 2); the publisher's acknowledgment from NBC News quoting CEO Melissa Bell (Tier 2) and from Bell's own Sun-Times op-ed carrying the licensing chain, the AI-use policy and the subscriber no-charge decision (Tier 1, first party). Each source is captured locally in `sources/` and carries a Wayback snapshot in `dossier.json`; all quotes verified verbatim with `tools/quotecheck.py`. - **Date verified:** research settled 2026-08-07 (presentation rebuilt to the six-element contract 2026-08-22; Tier-1 exact-count primary added 2026-08-22; in checking, not publish-ready). - **Residual limit:** the exact count is enumerated by the publisher's own review of a syndicated section it did not produce, corroborated by three independent newsrooms (NPR, CBC, NBC) rather than by a preserved primary scan of the May 2025 special-section artifact. No confirmation is solicited from the Sun-Times, King Features or the freelancer, since a subject confirming its own numbers is a testimonial, not an audit; the cited Tier-1 review already exists, published and archivable, in the public record and is an admission against interest. ## Sources 1. **Tier 1** — Chicago Sun-Times (newsroom review, first party) · "Special section with fake book list plagued with additional errors, Sun-Times review finds" · 2025-05-29 · https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2025/05/29/special-section-king-fake-book-list-errors-sun-times-review 2. **Tier 2** — NPR · "A newspaper's summer book list recommends nonexistent books. Blame AI" · 2025-05-20 · https://www.npr.org/2025/05/20/nx-s1-5405022/fake-summer-reading-list-ai 3. **Tier 2** — CBC News · "Chicago newspaper's summer reading list features books that don't exist" · 2025-05-20 · https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/chicago-sun-times-ai-book-list-1.7539016 4. **Tier 2** — NBC News · "Chicago Sun-Times admits its summer book guide included fake, AI-generated titles" · 2025-05-21 · https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/chicago-sun-admits-summer-book-guide-included-fake-ai-generated-titles-rcna208325 5. **Tier 1** — Chicago Sun-Times · Melissa Bell op-ed, "Lessons and an apology from Sun-Times CEO on AI-generated book list" · 2025-05-29 · https://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/2025/05/29/lessons-apology-from-sun-times-ceo-ai-generated-book-list ## Related case files - [CNET quietly ran AI-written articles and corrected 41 of 77 after errors — the same failure of an unverified AI content pipeline reaching a trusted masthead](/stories/cnet-ai-written-articles-41-of-77-corrected-red-ventures-pauses-ai-tool-2023/) - [Sports Illustrated published AI-generated articles under fake author bylines and deleted them — syndicated/third-party AI content passing as human editorial, the same trust breach one step further](/stories/sports-illustrated-ai-generated-fake-authors-deleted-articles-arena-group-advon-2023/) - [Gannett/USA Today paused LedeAI-written high-school sports articles after error-filled copy — an AI content tool pulled after public failure, the withdrawal counterpart to the Sun-Times acknowledgment](/stories/gannett-usa-today-ledeai-high-school-sports-articles-paused-2023/)