CEO Miguel Martin said Aurora has no ties to either of the companies mentioned in the article.Brendan McDermid/Reuters
The Edmonton-based cannabis company is cleaning up the mess left behind on investment sites that have mistakenly published reports written by AI of non-existent business transactions.
One article posted on the Investing.com website Wednesday morning claimed that Aurora Cannabis Inc. had acquired New Zealand-based Medleaf Therapeutics through cash and inventory transactions. This article specified purchase details, cited Aurora's CEO, and cited the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a source of information.
“To see the first article come out, there's no truth to it. Investing.com—it's really what you know—obviously, not a reliable source,” Aurora Chairman and CEO Miguel Martin said in an interview.
Another article was published on the same website about eight hours later, and outlined the partnership with a business called Medipharm GmbH.
It appears there is no company called Medipharm GmbH. However, there is Austria-based Meditrade-Medipharm GmbH and ONT's Barrie-based Canadian company called Medipharm Labs.
At the bottom of both articles was an italicized disclaimer that it was “generated with AI support and reviewed by editors.”
However, Martin said the quotes in the article were not his words and those deals did not exist.
“It's just amazing fiction,” he said.
Martin said Aurora has no ties to either of the companies mentioned in the article. Aurora attempted to reach Investing.com and had not received a response late Thursday afternoon.
“We're here to be accountable and we're looking for all the options to make sure this doesn't happen again,” Martin said.
ContraGuys: Pot stocks are getting closer to buying, but only a few
Later on Thursday in an email response to Globe and Mail, a spokesman for Investing.com said the article was published due to a “technical issue” and was later deleted at the time of notification. Both articles have been wiped out from the website.
The terms and conditions of the website state that while we strive to have accurate and relevant AI-generated content, we “do not make any representations or warranties of any kind regarding completeness, accuracy, reliability or suitability for any particular purpose.”
Medipharm Labs spokesman John Vincic told Grove in an email that the article's reference to his company was false and that “there is no deal between Medipharm and Aurora regarding German and EU distribution.”
Aurora released two news releases on Wednesday and Thursday, saying the article was incorrect. Martin said he has cleared the air by talking to employees, investors and other stakeholders.
Investing.com later published two articles denying the deal, based on a news release. One was generated with support from AI, and the second was a replica of the Aurora News Release, which procureed the company.
Martin said it would be difficult to determine whether the original article would have a material impact on the company's stock.
“I think this is one of the drawbacks in this era and the generation of AI,” Martin said.
Reporting news using AI-generated content is a problem, said Gavin Adamson, a professor of journalism at Metropolitan University in Toronto, who teaches business journalism.
“When you ask AI to develop content, it's inevitable that an error will occur,” Professor Adamson said.
He said that in such cases it involves publicly available companies and risks content that affects investors and stock prices.
