The Editor of the Irish Times has apologised for what he described as a "breach of trust" between the newspaper and its readers and said it needs to make its pre-publication procedures more robust.
The apology comes following the publication of an opinion article online, labelling Irish people's use of fake tan as "cultural appropriation", which was later discovered to have been a hoax.
In a message published online, editor Ruadhán MacCormaic said the paper had fallen victim to a deliberate and coordinated deception.
He said that over the course of several days, the author had engaged with the relevant editorial desk - taking suggestions for edits on board, offering personal anecdotes and supplying links to relevant research.
All of this was taken in good faith, and the article was published online on Thursday morning, he said.
However less than 24 hours after publication the paper became aware the column may not have been genuine, and it now appears the article and the photo may have been produced, at least in part, using AI technology.
He said the newspaper was not taking the situation lightly and that what happened was a breach of the trust between The Irish Times and its readers.
'We are genuinely sorry. The incident has highlighted a gap in our pre-publication procedures. We need to make them more robust - and we will. It has also underlined one of the challenges raised by generative AI for news organisations. We, like others, will learn and adapt," he said.
