Sports Illustrated CEO fired after AI scandal, Manoj Bhargava takes over

Ross Levinsohn has been fired from his position as CEO of Sports Illustrated.

The Arena Group, publisher of Sports Illustrated, has fired the magazine’s chief executive officer two weeks after a Futurism exposé revealed how Sports Illustrated had been publishing articles from fake writers with AI-generated headshots.

According to The Guardian, The Arena Group’s board announced on Monday that CEO Ross Levinsohn had been terminated and Manoj Bhargava had taken over an interim CEO. Bhargava is the founder of 5-Hour Energy which owns a majority stake in The Arena Group.

Levinsohn’s firing comes after Futurism reported how Sports Illustrated had been publishing articles under fake author profiles. Their profile pictures were generated using AI. In fact, one person involved in the creation of Sports Illustrated content told Futurism that some of the articles themselves were generated using AI.

“The content is absolutely AI-generated, no matter how much they say that it's not,” the source said.

The AI-generated author profiles were removed from the Sports Illustrated website after Futurism reached out to The Arena Group for a response.

The Group’s statement on Levinsohn removal as CEO did not mention the embarrassing AI controversy. Levinsohn had served as the CEO of Sports Illustrated for three years.

When CNN reached out to Vince Bodiford, a spokesperson for interim CEO Bhargava, he said: “we have nothing further to add to the company’s prior statements regarding AI.”

Earlier, The Arena Group had denied allegations of publishing AI-generated content. The publisher said that the articles under scrutiny were sourced from a third-party advertising company, AdVon Commerce.

Last week, The Arena Group also fired three of its senior executives: operations president and chief operating officer Andrew Kraft, media president Rob Barrett, and corporate counsel Julie Fenster.