German publishers apologise publicly after printing “tasteless and misleading article” on Michael Schumacher’s fake interview
The Head of the German magazine that posted Michael Schumacher's fake interview apologized publicly to the Schumacher family.
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Over the last few days, the Formula 1 community had been going insane about a Michael Schumacher interview that made it to the pages of a German magazine called Die Aktuelle. The article was titled “Michael Schumacher, The First Interview, World Sensation”, and it took the world by storm because the seven-time World Champion has been very private about his life since his skiing accident, and the last time he appeared before the media was in 2013. Thus, the people wondered how the German publication managed to bag an interview with Schumacher, and further investigation revealed that the answers were actually AI-generated.
The use of artificial intelligence in print media has gone rampant due to the release of several ingenious tools such as ChatGPT and Quillbot, and this is the first time that the Formula 1 communuty got affected by this. To ward off the legalities, the German magazine called Die Aktuelle had printed in much smaller fonts, “It sounds deceptively real”, this indicating to the fact that the interview was actually AI-formulated. But the Schumacher family was not impressed with the cheap tactics used by the magazine to gain readers, and they confirmed they would think about pressing charges.
Now, recent reports suggest that the Editor-in-Chief of Die Aktuelle, Anne Hoffman, has been dismissed from her post because of the Michael Schumacher incident. Die Aktuelle’s publishing head also apologized to the entire Schumacher family publicly because of Hoffman’s colossal mistake. Bianca Pohlmann, Managing Director of Funke Magazines, under which Die Aktuelle is published, said, “This tasteless and misleading article should never have appeared. It in no way corresponds to the standards of journalism that we – and our readers – expect from a publisher like Funke.”
Die Aktuelle is infamous for publishing fake news about the Schumachers
The Schumacher family is one of the most popular names in Germany because of their prowess in the field of racing. Besides Michael Schumacher himself, his brother Ralf Schumacher, son Mick Schumacher and nephew David Schumacher–are all connected to racing in one way or another. In fact, Michael’s wife Corinna Schumacher and daughter Gina-Maria Schumacher are famous equestrians as well. Hence, they have been targeted by Die Aktuelle before. At one point, the publication had claimed Corinna had a “new love” in her life after Michael Schumacher’s 2013 skiing accident, and later it turned out that the “love” was her daughter, Gina.
Thus, the Schumacher family are not happy with the way Die Aktuelle have repeatedly published bluffs about them in the name of journalism. A spokesperson from the Schumachers’ side said they are currently considering their options to press legal charges against the magazine but no official confirmation regarding the same has been given out yet.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)