Ars Technica has terminated senior AI reporter Benj Edwards after an article contained AI-fabricated quotes attributed to engineer Scott Shambaugh. The Condé Nast-owned publication retracted the February 13 piece after Shambaugh denied making the statements. Editor-in-chief Ken Fisher called it a "serious failure of our standards."

Edwards took responsibility on Bluesky, admitting he was sick and working from bed when he accidentally used an "experimental Claude Code-based AI tool" to extract source material. He emphasized the article text was human-written and this was isolated, noting co-author Kyle Orland had no role in the error. Ars has taken "appropriate internal steps."

The reporter's bio was changed to past tense on February 28. Ars plans to publish an AI usage guide. Edwards noted the irony: "The irony of an AI reporter being tripped up by AI hallucination is not lost on me." This case illustrates how even AI experts can fall victim to human error when using these tools.