• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, February 16, 2026

The technology site Ars Technica published an article containing “fabricated quotations generated by an AI tool and attributed to a source who did not say them,” Ken Fisher, editor in chief, acknowledged in a statement on the site.

According to Fisher, Scott Shambaugh was falsely quoted in the article, which has been retracted in full.

Fisher called this “serious failure of our standards,” and added, "Direct quotations must always reflect what a source actually said."

Ars Technica has been serving the technology space since 1998. This the first correction this reporter can recall. 

In any case, Fisher and his team reacted quickly. On Friday, Ars Technica issued this retraction on its site:

“Following additional review, Ars has determined that the story 'After a routine code rejection, an AI agent published a hit piece on someone by name,' did not meet our standards. Ars Technica has retracted this article. Originally published on Feb 13, 2026 at 2:40PM EST and removed on Feb 13, 2026 at 4:22PM EST."

Fisher did not blame anyone on staff for the incident.

But, he continued, “That this happened at Ars is especially distressing. We have covered the risks of overreliance on AI tools for years, and our written policy reflects those concerns. In this case, fabricated quotations were published in a manner inconsistent with that policy.” 

Fisher concluded, ”We have reviewed recent work and have not identified additional issues. At this time, this appears to be an isolated incident.”

That was the honorable course.

We will continue reading and quoting Ars Technica with full confidence. But this proves—again—that editors and publishers can be victimized as well as helped by AI technology.