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When a death is clickbait


AI-generated obituaries are beginning to litter search results, turning the deaths of private individuals into clunky, repetitive content.

“[The obituaries] had this real world impact where at least four people that I know of called [our] mutual friends, and thought that I had died with her, like we had a suicide pact or something,” says Vastag, who for a time was married to Mazur and remained close with her. Under the Thailand news category: “Man’s public poop at Thai car showroom creates online buzz.”The Trending section features articles like “Pedro Pascal’s surprising revelation steals show at 2024 Emmy Awards”and other pastiches of early 2010s internet clickbait. Stories about deaths are often tagged as “trending” even when there’s no indication the individual was known outside of their community, and the articles appear to be aggregating or rewriting local news reports, social media posts, or actual obituaries from family.

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