They fired the editor of the magazine who fabricated an interview with Michael Schumacher with artificial intelligence

The Funke media group has decided to oust Anne Hoffmann, the editor of the magazine “Die Aktuelle” who published an alleged interview with the seven times Formula 1 world champion, Michael Schumacherwith answers created by an artificial intelligence program.

Furthermore, the group, through a statement published on its website, apologized and affirmed it the article should never have been published.

“The director of Die Aktuelle, Anne Hoffmann, who has assumed the journalistic responsibility of the magazine since 2009, has been removed from her duties” as of this Saturday, said the head of the group’s magazine, Bianca Pohlmann, presenting an “apology” to the family of the legendary German Formula 1 driver.

“That insipid, confusing article should never have been published,” Pohlmann said. “It does not meet the criteria of journalism that we have come to expect and our readers have come to expect from a publisher like Funke,” he added.

“Michael Schumacher. The first interview. A worldwide sensation”, reads the magazine cover illustrated with a large photograph of the ex-racer.

In smaller text it says “sounds deceptively authentic” and within the publication it states that the interview was conducted through an artificial intelligence program.

That indication can easily escape the reader of the interview, entitled “My life has completely changed.”

A caption to the photo plays on the ambiguity of whether it is an authentic interview in which Schumacher “gives answers for the first time since his skiing accident” or whether “is it really our Schumi speaking?”

Since the accident, Schumacher has been confined to his home in Switzerland and little information is provided by his family about his health.

There is an agreement with most of the German media to respect his privacy and that of his family, which however is not shared by some tabloids such as “Die Aktuelle”.

The specialized media blog “Ubermedien” notes that the magazine “always tries to give the impression that this is a real conversation with Michael Schumacher”.

The Schumacher family has announced it will sue the publication.