AI-Generated News Sites Removed After ABC Investigation

A series of AI-generated websites that presented themselves as local news outlets in regional Western Australia were removed from the internet after the ABC began investigating their ownership and editorial practices. The sites, which first appeared in February, included The Mandurah Reader, Esperance Enosis and The Bunbury Guardian.

They listed AI-generated reporter biographies and published articles that appeared to copy content from ABC South West WA stories.

The websites were operated under a parent company called Scholastica. Ownership records linked the sites to Anton Lucanus, the 2015 recipient of the New Colombo Scholarship. In a statement, Mr Lucanus said the project was an experiment that had gone wrong and that guardrails were needed for the technology.

He confirmed using the ABN of Perth-based Full Body Health Pty Ltd for domain registration of two sites, describing it as an administrative error. Full Body Health stated it had no involvement or knowledge of the sites. Mr Lucanus said he had previously built a website for the company in exchange for shares.

O'Connell, an AI media academic and PhD candidate, said the sites represented one of the first recorded examples of pink slime journalism in Australia. She noted that regional communities that had lost local newspapers were particularly vulnerable to such content.

Monica Attard, coordinator of the University of Technology Sydney Centre for Media Transition, said publishing AI-generated images in court reporting was problematic because it was unclear whether the images supported or undermined truth. Glynn Greensmith, a senior lecturer in journalism at Curtin University, said taking advantage of public trust in community news set a dangerous precedent.