Satirical site The Onion removes more AI-generated images

The Onion has removed another image from its website after discovering it contained AI-generated content, marking the second such incident in recent days.

Key incident details: The satirical news site took down an image accompanying an article titled “Panicked Pottery Barn Executives Announce They Have Lost Control Of The Wicker” after learning it contained AI-generated elements from Shutterstock.

• The image, which showed Manhattan’s skyline reimagined with woven material, had been published over a month ago
• The Onion’s CEO Ben Collins acknowledged the mistake on Bluesky and apologized for the oversight
• This incident follows a similar recent case where The Onion had to remove another AI-generated image

Technical context: Stock photo services are increasingly incorporating AI-generated content into their platforms, creating challenges for publishers seeking to use only human-created images.

• Shutterstock’s “exclude AI” filter has known reliability issues
• The image in question appeared in The Onion’s first print issue following its decade-long hiatus
• The AI elements were subtle enough that even an Onion content expert initially attributed the image to skilled Photoshop work

Industry implications: The situation highlights the growing difficulty of identifying and filtering out AI-generated content in professional media.

• Stock photo services like Shutterstock, Getty Images, and Adobe now include AI image generators in their search results
• Publishers working with conceptual illustrations regularly rely on stock photo services
• The infiltration of AI-generated content is affecting even organizations actively trying to avoid it

Organizational response: The Onion has committed to strengthening its verification processes to prevent future incidents.

• Collins emphasized that the issue stems from stock photo services becoming “flooded with AI slop”
• The organization is being transparent about removing AI-generated content
• The publication’s art team is reviewing its procedures for sourcing and verifying images

Reading between the lines: While these incidents represent unintentional uses of AI-generated content, they underscore a broader challenge facing media organizations: the increasing difficulty of maintaining purely human-created content in an ecosystem where AI-generated materials are becoming ubiquitous and harder to detect. This situation may require media organizations to develop more sophisticated verification processes and potentially reassess their relationships with traditional content providers.