Journalist suspended for publishing AI-generated fake quotes
Peter Vandermeersch, a journalist at Mediahuis, was suspended after admitting he used AI tools to generate quotes in blog posts without verifying their accuracy. An investigation found dozens of fabricated quotes in 15 of his 53 posts, with seven individuals confirming they never made the statements attributed to them.
What happened
Peter Vandermeersch, a fellow at Mediahuis, used AI tools including ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's NotebookLM to summarise reports for his blog posts but did not verify whether the quotes generated by these tools were accurate before publishing them.
An investigation by NRC, a Dutch newspaper in the Mediahuis group where Vandermeersch had previously been editor-in-chief, found that 15 of his 53 blog posts contained quotes that could not be verified in the original sources he cited. Seven individuals confirmed they had not made the statements attributed to them.
Reported impact
Eight of Vandermeersch's articles were removed from the independent.ie website and app. Vandermeersch was suspended from his role as fellow.
Index analysis
Vandermeersch acknowledged that he 'fell into the trap of hallucinations' and 'wrongly put words into people's mouths' when using the AI tools without human verification. He stated he should have presented the AI-generated text as paraphrases rather than direct quotes.
Governance controls
Mediahuis group chief executive Gert Ysebaert stated that the company applies strict rules for AI use requiring diligence, human oversight and transparency. Ysebaert said the principles were not followed in this case and ran counter to the company's standards.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
This record was researched and written by the Index from original reporting. Its sources are still being verified by an editor, and they are listed here once that check is complete. Until then the record carries no reviewer.