It is however fraud on the part of the travel company to advertise something that doesn't exist. Another form of externalized cost of AI.
I doubt they commissioned articles on things that don't exist. If you use AI to perform a task that someone has asked you to do, it should be your responsibility to ensure that it has actually done that thing properly.
Just here to point out that from a legal perspective, fraud is deliberate deception.
In this case a tourist agency outsourced the creation of their marketing material to a company who used AI to produce it, with hallucinations. From the article it doesn't look like either of the two companies advertised the details knowing they're wrong, or had the intent to deceive.
Posting wrong details on a blog out of carelessness and without deliberate ill intention is not fraud more than using a wrong definition of fraud is fraud.
To omit that disclaimer, the author needs to take responsibility for fact checking anything they post.
Skipping that step, or leaving out the disclaimer, is not carelessness, it is willful misrepresentation.
Seems par for course.
To me this is the real takeaway for a lot of these uses of AI. You can put in practically zero effort and get a product. Then, when that product flops or even actively screws over your customers, just blame the AI!
No one is admitting it but AI is one of the easiest ways to shift blame. Companies have been doing this ever since they went digital. Ever heard of "a glitch in the system"? Well, now with AI you can have as many of those as you want, STILL never accept responsibility, and if you look to your left and right, everyone is doing it, and no one is paying the price.
An on the nose example would be, if your CEO asked you for a report, and you delivered fake data, do you think he would be satisfied with the excuse that AI got it wrong? Customers are going to feel the same way, AI or human, you (the company, the employee) messed up.
No, it worked as designed. Generative AI simply creates content of the type that you specify, but has no concept of truth or facts.
nephihaha•3h ago