Incredible. When Ars pull an article and its comments, they wipe the public XenForo forum thread too, but Scott's post there was archived. Username scottshambaugh:

https://web.archive.org/web/20260213211721/https://arstechni...

>Scott Shambaugh here. None of the quotes you attribute to me in the second half of the article are accurate, and do not exist at the source you link. It appears that they themselves are AI hallucinations. The irony here is fantastic.

Instead of cross-checking the fake quotes against the source material, some proud Ars Subscriptors proceed to defend Condé Nast by accusing Scott of being a bot and/or fake account.

EDIT: Page 2 of the forum thread is archived too. This poster spoke too soon:

>Obviously this is massive breach of trust if true and I will likely end my pro sub if this isnt handled well but to the credit of ARS, having this comment section at all is what allows something like this to surface. So kudos on keeping this chat around.

This is just one of the reasons archiving is so important in the digital era; it's key to keeping people honest.