A book examining how artificial intelligence distorts people’s sense of reality is now under scrutiny for its own use of AI-generated content. Steve Rosenbaum, author of The Future of Truth and holder of a master’s degree in “truth” from New York University, admitted in May 2026 that his book contained “a handful” of “improperly attributed or synthetic” quotes — after The New York Times reported it contained over a half-dozen made-up or misattributed ones.
The controversy widened when WIRED, which had published a 1,450-word excerpt from the book earlier that month, received a reader email describing the excerpt as “blatantly AI-written.” WIRED’s generative AI editorial policy prohibits the publication of AI-generated or AI-edited writing. The publication ran the excerpt through multiple AI-detection services — Pangram, GPTZero, and ZeroGPT — each of which flagged it as likely or highly probably AI-generated.
When WIRED’s head of research contacted Rosenbaum directly, he acknowledged using AI tools for “source discovery, brainstorming, structural feedback, and language refinement,” but maintained that “the ideas, reporting, arguments, and final authorship” were his own and that the excerpt “was not generated by AI and then simply published as-is.” He also cautioned against relying on AI detection tools, noting they can produce false positives.
WIRED then ran the full book through Pangram, described in the article as the current gold standard among AI-detection tools. Results indicated the book was 53 percent AI-generated, with an additional 9 percent flagged as likely AI-assisted. When asked about these findings, Rosenbaum declined to engage. “I don’t participate in that conversation,” he said.
In the book’s acknowledgements, Rosenbaum lists ChatGPT, Claude, NaturalReaders, ProWritingAid, and Grammarly as tools that helped “refine and polish the presentation” of his ideas. BenBella Books, whose imprint published the title, did not respond to requests for comment. Simon & Schuster, which distributes BenBella’s books in the United States, declined to comment.
Source: WIRED