German Magazine Publisher Pecat Editor Who Writes Fake Interviews Via AI With Michael Schumacher

Michael Schumacher, six times F1 world champion. (photo: twitter @schumacher)

JAKARTA - German magazine publisher who published an 'interview' with Michael Schumacher created by artificial intelligence (AI) has sacked the editor and apologized to the Formula One world champion family.

Schumacher, who has been a world champion seven times, is currently 54 years old and has not appeared publicly since he suffered a serious brain injury in a ski accident while on a family vacation in the French Alps in December 2013.

Schumacher's family said this week that they plan to take legal action against the weekly Die Aktuelle magazine, which is owned by Essen-based media group Funke. Funke apologized in a statement on their website www.funkedien.de.

"These indecent and misleading particles should never appear. This does not meet the journalistism standards we expect from a publisher like Funke," said Funke magazine management director Bianca Pohlmann.

"As a result of the publication of this article, the consequences of personnel will soon be taken. The editor-in-chief of Die Aktuelle, Anne Hoffmann, who has held journalistic responsibility for the newspaper since 2009, will be sacked starting today," added Pohlmann.

Die Aktuelle's latest edition features a smiling photo of Schumacher and a promising title 'First interview Michael Schumacher'. The lower line adds: "It sounds very real". In it, it turns out that the 'quoted' was made by AI.

Schumacher's family maintains strict privacy about the former rider's condition, with limited access only to those closest to him. "We live together at home. We do therapy. We do everything we can to make Michael better and make him feel comfortable, and to just make him feel like family, our bond," Corinna Schumacher said in a Netflix documentary in 2021.

"We are trying to move on as a family, as Michael likes and is still doing. And we are continuing our lives," he said at the time.