Bill Simmons under fire for using ChatGPT to simulate late critic Roger Ebert's opinions
nordicinst · x · 2026-09-02
The New York Times reports that Bill Simmons, founder of The Ringer, is taking flak for using ChatGPT (which he sometimes mispronounces "ChatGBT") on his movie podcast "The Rewatchables" to approximate the opinions of the late film critic Roger Ebert, who died in 2013. Film buffs called it disrespectful; others noted the irony of a columnist using technology to misappropriate another writer's work.
His frequent co-host Sean Fennessey inflamed the controversy on Sunday by publicly criticizing the AI use alongside colleague Amanda Dobbins — all three work at The Ringer. Notably, ads from OpenAI have run on the show this year.
More from Fun
- Matt Shumer builds GTA-style NYC open-world multiplayer game with Fable 5.1 — mattshumer_ · 2026-09-03
- 'Giving Katie highly capable AI was a huge mistake': a playful plug for managing up with agents — danshipper · 2026-09-03
- Matt Shumer previews GTA-style open-world multiplayer NYC game built with Fable 5.1 — mattshumer_ · 2026-09-03
- Dev launches sketch artist game where you draw suspects from witness testimony — JordanMorgan10 · 2026-09-03
- Adobe brings Express, Premiere, and Acrobat into Slack — and gets roasted for it — HaktanSuren · 2026-09-03
- Gemini roasts a tech dad based on his chat history: 'final boss of the could-build-that-over-a-weekend archetype' — tristanbob · 2026-09-03