German Magazine Editor Fired After Fake AI Interview With Formula One Racer

A German magazine editor was sacked after running an artificial intelligence-generated interview with former Formula One racer Michael Schumacher.

As Reuters reports(Opens in a new window), Die Aktuelle’s parent company Funke also apologized to Schumacher’s family for the fake interview. The family said earlier this week that they were planning legal action against the magazine because of it.

The celebrated racer has not been seen in public or done any media interviews since he a December 2013 skiing accident left him with a traumatic brain injury.

The controversy stems from the cover of the latest edition of the women’s weekly magazine. Die Aktuelle ran a headline promising the first interview with Schumacher since his accident. The article then revealed the quotes attributed to Schumacher were produced by AI.

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The quotes included(Opens in a new window) lines like: “I can with the help of my team actually stand by myself and even slowly walk a few steps. My wife and my children were a blessing to me and without them I would not have managed it. Naturally they are also very sad, how it has all happened.”

In a public apology on Funke’s website(Opens in a new window), the media company’s managing director Bianca Pohlmann said: “This tasteless and misleading article should never have appeared. It in no way meets the standards of journalism that we—and our readers—expect from a publisher like Funke.”

Pohlmann further said: “As a result of the publication of this article, immediate personnel consequences will be drawn. Die Aktuelle editor-in-chief Anne Hoffmann, who has held journalistic responsibility for the paper since 2009, will be relieved of her duties as of today.”

Schumacher’s family has been extremely private about the former Formula One racer’s health and condition. As Reuters notes, access to Schumacher is limited to those closest to him and he has not been seen in public since the 2013 incident.

His wife, Corinna Schumacher, shed some light on home life in a 2021 Netlifx documentary(Opens in a new window) where she said: “We live together at home. We do therapy. We do everything we can to make Michael better and to make sure he’s comfortable, and to simply make him feel our family, our bond.”