Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/01/29/writer-fabricated-stories-for-atlas-obscura.html
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That one I use every day these years. Every damn day.
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I’m sure Blair Mastbaum has a bright future working for the GOP or Putin (not that there’s much difference between the two these days).
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“Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away?”
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Blair Mastbaum a writer and a former model, now a human masquerading as an AI story generator.
Journalism is hard yo.
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Nuke the site from orbit. Only way to be sure?
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In this day of AI-generated lies and bullshit, shouldn’t we take a moment to appreciate human-generated, hand crafted artisanal bullshit?
I think not.
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“Game over, man… game over”?
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It’s a difficult one to parse. Obviously, editorial oversight should be there to make sure that the publication can stand behind what they publish, but it sounds as if there was a huge amount of effort put into this fakery, effort that could have been used to just research and write the article?
It looks like the writer should have asked for a transfer to writing fiction.
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I dont know; I mean, at least its human generated. going the extra mile to fake notes has to count for something? on the other hand…actually even LLM content is somewhat human generated as it relies on human generated content to make this artificial bs.
damn.
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The problem is rather that he isn’t getting paid to write fiction.
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Yes. And your decision to just take off caused it. Happy now? 
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Perhaps the writer had a plan all along to parlay the experience into a best-selling memoir… My Year of of Audacious Lies on Atlas Obscura… ?
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There’s some discussion over whether it’s best to leave the stories up with warning notes or get rid of them entirely.
How about spinning off a new online mag and calling it… Atlas Fictus. 
Anyway…
So, yet another fraudster and transplant living in NYC. I wonder if he and George Santos every crossed greasy paths.
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The name of my next grunge cover band
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What they did somehow sounds like more actual work than, you know, doing the goddamn job that they were paid for. 
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Clay’s Way[edit]
Mastbaum’s first novel, 2004’s Clay’s Way, won a Lambda Literary Award.[4]
Us Ones In Between[edit]
Mastbaum’s second novel, Us Ones In Between, published by Running Press and released in May 2008,[5] centers on depressed art school graduate Kurt Smith, who fantasizes about pushing boys in front of subway trains. The title is taken from the song “Us Ones In Between,” written by Spencer Krug and performed by the band Sunset Rubdown. The novel was a finalist for the 2008 Ferro-Grumley Award.[6]
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