A Chicago Sun-Times summer insert recommended books their named authors never wrote. Its freelance writer said he used AI

From the archive. First reported by 404 Media, May 2025. Where it stands now: Unknown, as of October 2026, no current source found. Why I saved this: Ten of 15 recommended books didn't exist, and every story with named sources had multiple errors. The lesson for me is about licensed content: the paper's name was on pages it didn't check.

CHICAGO, May 2025 — A summer guide printed in the Chicago Sun-Times recommended novels that their named authors never wrote. Here's what happened, what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of May 29, 2025)

Errors: 10 of 15 recommended titles were fake; all 10 stories with named sources had multiple errors. (Sun-Times review)
Price to readers: about 10 special sections a year at an extra $3 each, for the past two years; subscribers were not charged for this edition. (Sun-Times review; CPM)
Licensing fee: not disclosed.

What ran

On Sunday, May 18, the Sun-Times print and e-paper editions carried "Heat Index: Your Guide to the Best of Summer," a section its circulation department licensed from King Features, CPM said. "King Features worked with a freelancer who used an AI agent to help build out this special section," CPM's statement said.

The "Summer reading list for 2025" recommended 15 titles. Ten were fake, or not by the authors named: Tidewater Dreams (Isabel Allende), The Last Algorithm (Andy Weir), Hurricane Season (Brit Bennett), The Collector's Piece (Taylor Jenkins Reid), Nightshade Market (Min Jin Lee), The Longest Day (Rumaan Alam), Boiling Point (Rebecca Makkai), Migrations (Maggie O'Farrell), The Rainmakers (Percival Everett) and Salt and Honey (Delia Owens), per Gizmodo's annotated list. Books called Hurricane Season, Migrations and Salt and Honey exist, but by other writers. The last five titles were real. Percival Everett replied to the paper by email: "This is my fake AI response," before confirming that the novel attributed to him "has not been written." NPR reported that at least one edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer ran the same list. 404 Media's Jason Koebler reported on it the same day.

The wider review

The Sun-Times newsroom checked the full 64-page section. It found that a quoted University of Colorado "professor of leisure studies" did not appear in the university's records, and that Wired said a cited writer had not written for it. DIY blogger Beau Coffron, quoted on pergolas, told the paper: "I never said that."

The writer, Marco Buscaglia, a Chicago-based freelancer for King Features, a unit of Hearst, blamed AI and his own failure to fact-check. "I'll take responsibility and again, will blame my AI naivety and lack of oversight," he said. He said he wrote practically the entire issue as a side job and had worked for King for about three years on similar assignments. The review also raised questions about a King-produced holiday guide that ran in November.

Two accounts of the rules

King Features told CPM it has "a strict policy with our staff, cartoonists, columnists, and freelance writers against the use of AI to create content" and, the Sun-Times reported, ended its working relationship with him. Buscaglia told the Sun-Times he reviewed his contracts with King and found no AI policy. We have not seen the contracts.

What the paper changed

In her op-ed, Bell listed a series of "human mistakes," hers included. "But AI didn't submit the stories, or send them out to partners, or put them in print," she wrote. CPM said it would stop buying special editorial sections from King but keep its comics and puzzles. The section was removed from the e-paper.

Bell wrote that the Sun-Times published the first such section, "Summer Recipes," in May 2024, before she joined as CEO that September, and that a review of the previous two King issues found no factual discrepancies. She said CPM introduced a first draft of an AI policy earlier in 2025 and planned an AI Oversight Committee drawing on the newsroom, product, legal and other teams. CPM called it "unacceptable" that readers were not told it came from outside the newsroom.

What went wrong

No check before print. The Sun-Times editorial staff had no role in producing the section.
No label. Readers were not told the section was syndicated.
Contested policy. King and the writer disagree on whether an AI rule applied.
What we don't know yet: which AI tool was used, what CPM paid King, and what King's internal review found.

Our follow-up question for King Features

What did King's internal review find, and did the writer's contract include an AI policy?

Later developments (added Oct. 2026)

As of Oct. 25, 2026, the Sun-Times posts an "Acceptable Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy," which the page shows as updated Feb. 13, 2026. It says "any significant use of GAI in content must be disclosed to the audience" and "under no circumstances should any content created by GAI be published without human review." (Sun-Times AI policy)
For a related case about AI errors in news, see /case/apple-ai-news-summaries.

Sources

Chicago Public Media, “Chicago Sun-Times response to May 18 special section,” May 20, 2025. chicago.suntimes.com
Chicago Sun-Times, Kade Heather and Dan Mihalopoulos (WBEZ), “Special section with fake book list plagued with additional errors, Sun-Times review finds,” May 29, 2025. chicago.suntimes.com
Chicago Sun-Times, Melissa Bell, “Lessons (and an apology) from the Sun-Times CEO on that AI-generated book list,” May 29, 2025 (carries a June 2, 2025 correction about which comics King Features provides). chicago.suntimes.com
NPR, Elizabeth Blair, “How an AI-generated summer reading list got published in major newspapers,” May 20, 2025. npr.org
404 Media, Jason Koebler, “Chicago Sun-Times Prints AI-Generated Summer Reading List With Books That Don't Exist,” May 20, 2025. 404media.co
Chicago Sun-Times, “Acceptable Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy in the Chicago Public Media Newsroom,” accessed Oct. 25, 2026. chicago.suntimes.com
Gizmodo, Matt Novak, “Chicago Paper Publishes 'Summer Reading List' of Fake Books Created With AI,” May 20, 2025. gizmodo.com

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder