An AI-generated article about an alleged Halloween parade has drawn thousands of citizens to the streets in Dublin. However, the announced parade floats and showmen never came. The website operator feels that the criticism has caused him to be treated unfairly. Petr Kratochvil

AI invents Halloween parade

In times before the advent of artificial intelligence, the whole thing would have been described as a somewhat belated April Fool’s joke. Thousands of residents of Ireland’s capital Dublin were lured out of their houses on Halloween evening to watch a parade that didn’t even exist. Citizens were made aware of the alleged event through advertisements on social media and Google, which were placed by a site called My Spirit Halloween The Independent reported.

AI articles on events as a business model

The site is part of a company that specializes in creating websites about seasonal parades, celebrations and events. The business model is to create many articles about the festivities in order to appear as high as possible in Google search results. Money is then earned through affiliate links and Google Ads.

ChatGPT is also used. However, the announcement about the event in Dublin appears to have been a hallucination of the AI. The website operator asserts in an interview Wired all articles would be checked and edited by human employees. There was “just one mistake” in this one text.

“Don’t just believe everything”

To date, the company has never received a complaint about fake items. Thousands of texts have already been created with AI. Due to the current media coverage, people feel that they are being treated unfairly. “That was simply a mistake. And you shouldn’t say that we are fraudsters,” says the owner of the company. “We are deeply disappointed and ashamed, and frankly, we feel bad.”

 But they didn’t seem to want to take on complete responsibility. Users shouldn’t believe everything they find on Google: “Google is just a search engine, and anyone can post anything there.

Don’t just believe it. Check it.” At least the visitors to the fake Halloween parade on the streets of Dublin kept their good spirits. Eventually the police broke up the ‘event’ peacefully. However, due to the crowds, officials in Dublin should consider whether they actually want to plan a parade next year. There definitely seems to be enough interest.