The famous Chicago Sun-times newspaper in Illinois has confirmed that the summer reading list, including some advice on books that do not exist, was created using freelancers who work with one of the content partners.

Social media posts began circulating on Tuesday, criticizing the paper for allegedly publishing an article using the AI ​​software Chatgpt, which contains book suggestions for the "Summer Reading List" for the upcoming summer season. As we all know, such chatbots can constitute information, a phenomenon commonly known as "AI hallucination", so the article contains several fake titles attached to the real author.

“I went into the library’s Chicago-area newspaper database to confirm that it wasn’t fake, it wasn’t fake,” said Riot Riot editor Kelly Jensen. "Why are you using Chatgpt to make up for books? You used to have book staff. There is absolutely no fact check?"

On Tuesday afternoon, the post had over 1,000 likes and nearly 500 conversions.

Among the fake books are the hurricane season of Brit Bennett, Min Jin Lee's Minshade Market, Rumaan Alam's longest day, the boiling point of Rebecca Makkai, the migration of Maggie O'Farrell and the rain-raising of Percival Everett. All the authors listed are truly acclaimed novelists – but the attached books are not the real titles for their publication.

Additionally, the article includes descriptions of each Phoney book, and why readers can like them.

The article does include some real titles like Ian McEwan’s Atonement.

Others on social media noted that the use of AI seems to be found throughout the page for Summer 2025. A screenshot of an article titled "Summer Food Trends" shows Catherine Furst, an alleged Cornell food anthropologist. But no one seems to have come under this name in Cornell.

In another article about the idea of ​​stimulating a person’s backyard, it quotes Daniel Ray, a claimed editor of firepitbase.com. There seems to be no such website.

On Tuesday morning, Bluesky's official account on Chicago Suntime settled the dispute. "We are looking at how this is printed when we speak," the account reads. "This is not edited content, nor is it created or approved by the Sun-Times newsroom. We value your trust in the report and take this information very seriously. More information will be provided soon."

By Tuesday night, the publication released a story confirming that AI has been used to create lists as part of a special section provided by nationally recognized content partners and co-produced with the Chicago Sun Times and other newspapers.

"For all journalism, this should be a learning moment, and our work is valued because of our very real human journalist and editor-in-community relationship with audiences," said Chicago Sunshow.

The AI-generated story is outside Chicago. A post on Angelareadsbooks about threading accused Philadelphia inquirer of publishing the same fake reading list.

“It’s a slap for anyone who is professional when it’s threatening the library and library budget every day,” the post reads. “Where is the integrity of the news??”

Popular writer Jasmine Guillory reacted to a post about fake novels and wrote on the subject: "Oh my god. Just the book of imagination, they printed it."

Chicago Sun Age said, “committed to making sure this never happens again.” The special section will be removed from the Chicago Sun Age e-paper version, as the publication vows to update policies related to third-party licensed editing content.

"We know that more answers and transparency are provided in the production and release of this section and will share other updates in the coming days," the publication said.

The Chicago Sun Age was caused by a merger in 1948 and has long been the second largest circulation in the city's newspapers. It drags the Chicago Tribune only.

The rise of AI content is an ongoing issue that newsrooms must work hard. Some papers have publicly utilized the technology and even posted job postings for "AI-assisted" journalists.