Sports Illustrated denies a report stories on its web site are AI-generated.

“Today, an article was published alleging that Sports Illustrated published AI-generated articles,” SI posted on social media Monday. “According to our initial investigation, this is not accurate. The articles in question were product reviews and were licensed content from an external, third-party company, AdVon Commerce.

“A number of AdVon’s e-commerce articles ran on certain Arena websites. We continually monitor our partners and were in the midst of a review when these allegations were raised. AdVon has assured us that all of the articles in question were written and edited by humans. According to AdVon, their writers, editors, and researchers create and curate content and follow a policy that involves using both counter-plagiarism and counter-AI software on all content. However, we have learned that AdVon had writers use a pen or pseudo name in certain articles to protect author privacy — actions we don’t condone — and we are removing the content while our internal investigation continues and have since ended the partnership.”

Futurism reports stories and author profiles are AI-generated. In addition, the report claims author pictures were found on sites selling AI-generated images.

The Sports Illustrated Union also issued a response Monday.

“We, the workers of the SI Union, are horrified by a story on the site Futurism,” the statement read, per Deadline. “If true, these practices violate everything we believe about journalism. We deplore being associated with something so disrespectful to our readers. …

“We demand answers and transparency from (parent group) Arena Group management about what exactly has been published under the SI name. We demand the company adhere to basic journalistic standards, including not publishing computer-written stories by fake people.”

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.