Storm around the book by a TVP Info journalist. Serious accusations were made
Incorrect footnotes appeared in the book by journalist Karolina Opolska. The publishing house apologized and explained the situation as a “technical error”. However, Internet users were not convinced and found further irregularities.
At the end of September, the Harde publishing house published a book by Karolina Opolska titled “Conspiracy theory, or the true history of the world.” In her work, the TVP Info journalist and founder of the “Conspiracy Theory” channel on YouTube looks at alternative history and popular conspiracy theories.
A scandal over a journalist’s book. Did artificial intelligence help?
Opole’s book began to become famous at the beginning of November. It was then that Artur Wójcik, a historian associated with the Jagiellonian Museum, author of the book “Sarmatia” and the Sigillum Authenticum blog, pointed out a disturbing error to the author. He noted that in the footnotes she refers to three non-existent historical works.
In the wide discussion that this discovery sparked, accusations of using artificial intelligence to write the book were repeated many times. At the current stage of AI development, it sometimes generates links to false sources. Karolina Opolska, however, strongly denied it and pointed to the publisher’s fault.
“When I received the printed book, I didn’t read the footnotes. Only now, after reading this post, did I verify them and found that something was wrong,” she said in an interview with “Presserwise”. She also emphasized that although she responded to Wójcik, she did not intend to respond further to those commenting on X. She explained this approach by the aggressive and vulgar nature of Elon Musk’s platform.
The publisher of Opolska comments on the confusion
The Harde publishing house also published its own statement, also denying the use of AI to create the book. “At no stage was the book written or co-created by AI tools. Due to a technical error, three incorrect footnotes were published in the book,” we read.
The statement referred to the correct sources, apologized and assured the author’s reliability. However, not all Internet users were convinced. Some argued that no technical error could have created the non-existent footnotes. As reported by the Onet Kultura portal, there were also voices about a larger number of incorrect footnotes in Opolska’s book.
The same portal reminded that Karolina Opolska is an author with 20 years of experience. During her career, she worked, among others: in Tok FM, Onet, “Newsweek” and “Forbes Women”. Currently, she is associated with TVP Info and the Sekielski channel on YouTube. She is also deputy head of the Department of Journalism and New Media at Collegium Civitas.
