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"path": "/2026/02/18/ars-technica-retracts-story-featuring-fake-quotes-made-up-by-ai-about-a-different-ai-that-launched-a-weird-smear-campaign-against-an-engineer-who-rejected-its-code-seriously/",
"publishedAt": "2026-02-18T13:27:08.000Z",
"site": "https://www.techdirt.com",
"tags": [
"1",
"ai",
"automation",
"chatgpt",
"claude",
"crawling agents",
"human error",
"journalism",
"programming",
"scott shambaugh"
],
"textContent": "Last week, Denver-area engineer Scott Shambaugh wrote about how an AI agent (likely prompted by its operator) started a weird little online campaign against him after he rejected its code inclusion in the popular Python charting library matplotlib. The owner likely didn’t appreciate Shambaugh openly questioning whether AI-generated code belongs in open source projects at […]",
"title": "Ars Technica Retracts Story Featuring Fake Quotes Made Up By AI, About A Different AI That Launched A Weird Smear Campaign Against An Engineer Who Rejected Its Code (Seriously)"
}