Three linked PR agencies are bombarding British journalists with what seem to be AI-written releases, some of them featuring ‘fake people’ who appear not to exist.
Signal The News, Relay The Update and Inform The Audience frequently do not reply to follow-up emails from journalists and the agencies constantly change email addresses to avoid being blocked.
In June, Press Gazette revealed a campaign by Signal The News featured accident-prone lottery winners who appeared not to exist. They had no social media presence, and did not reply to emails from Press Gazette.
Signal The News strongly denied suggestions that the lottery winners did not exist.
The agency has continued to send out hundreds of emails to journalists, who report that staff do not reply to requests for follow-ups.
The PR campaigns appear to be link-building campaigns for search engine optimisation – by securing multiple links on reputable websites such as news publishers, companies can improve their search ranking.
Many of the case studies quote sources such as former police officer Pete Nelson and chef Daniel Harris, who both allegedly have decades of experience in their respective fields, but are extremely hard to find online.
Stories featuring the case studies have appeared in Devon Live, Birmingham Mail, Galway Beo, the New York Post, Daily Express, Lancs Live (plus syndication to Yahoo News), Chronicle Live and the Daily Mirror.
Other case studies that appear to be linked to the same companies (Plumbworld and Plates Express) are also extremely hard to find online – including Charlotte Hughes, a wellness advisor for the company whose advice featured in the Mirror and Express among others. Plumbworld has not responded to questions about ‘Hughes’.
When Press Gazette attempted to contact staff at Relay The Update last week to ask for pictures or a phone number for ‘Daniel Harris’, there was no reply.
When challenged last Wednesday that their agencies were sending out releases written by AI and populated by ‘fake people’, none of the staff at any of the agencies responded.
The three linked agencies all have exactly the same website design, and link to Romanian companies including SIV Media.
The websites do not appear to be fully finished, and two out of the three show text saying ‘Buy full template’, linking to a generic template design for a PR agency.
Many of the releases seem to show the hallmarks of being written by artificial intelligence, national newspaper journalists told Press Gazette.
Journalists ‘inundated’ by ‘invented AI PRs’
Press Gazette ran one release, for travel company Ski Vertigo, through an AI checker, Pangram, which said with 99.9% confidence that the release contained AI writing (although it is worth noting that AI checkers are not always accurate).
The Sun’s head of travel Lisa Minot told Press Gazette: “We’ve noticed that we are getting inundated with AI releases from what is becoming ever more obvious are invented AI PRs. We’d usually just delete but there was one recently that named a specific former BA pilot by name and it was quite an interesting story.
“When we replied to the email asking for proof of the named former pilot as we couldn’t find anything ourselves, no one came back to us. We tried replying to multiple ‘PRs’ but got no reply. We now instantly spike anything from that company.
“I think they may be based in Eastern Europe but there’s only so many hours in the day and I can’t be wasting time checking out dodgy digital PR companies. I will restrict myself to only working with PRs I know personally or who are working for PR companies I know actually exist!”
The releases are sent out on behalf of legitimate business clients including Plumbworld, Ski Vertigo and Plates Express. But when Press Gazette spoke to people at those companies they gave no response to queries about the agencies and the case studies.
Subject lines for the releases included: “Drivers warned: this everyday highway just became a disaster zone”, “I’m a chef – here’s the £1 kitchen item I use to clean burnt pans fast”, “The 10 best electric cars to buy if you want to avoid tesla”, “UK drivers urged to remove this common add-on that increases fuel use by 39%”, “5 everyday clothing items that could land you a £5,000 fine while driving”, “UK drivers warned: sunny weather mistake could cost you £200” and “The best ways to keep your luggage safe from theft while travelling”.
Matt Rudd, a feature writer on the Sunday Times told Press Gazette that he had received dozens of emails, despite attempting to block emails from Signal The News and Relay The Update.
He told Press Gazette: “It’s AI-generated and incredibly annoying… I block and block but they keep coming with made-up names.
“All the releases are very clickbait-y – “this £50 trick could save your house from flooding” – but if you actually want to get more information (unlikely), they are impossible to contact.”
A spokesperson for Reach, which owns several titles that published stories featuring the fake experts, said: “We take the validity of our experts extremely seriously and have been working hard to weed out these fake experts.
“As these fake experts continue to proliferate, we will all need to develop more sophisticated ways to guard against this risk. In the meantime we will operate with a far more limited whitelist of approved experts only, which is also not ideal but necessary to stem this tide.”
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