Artificial intelligence as a research tool has largely been overlooked, particularly in the realm of journalism. The industry’s vast repository of reliable information about places like Las Vegas has traditionally made advanced AI seem superfluous. Moreover, the looming specter of AI usurping human jobs adds a layer of reluctance. While artists may currently be more threatened by AI, recent experiments reveal that the technology is not yet capable of providing accurate information—at least not this week.
For an article on the fate of the art from the Silver Slipper, art collector Gary Autry incorrectly claimed that Steve Wynn purchased the casino and demolished it in 1988. Our own investigations confirmed that the Elardi family, not Wynn, bought the land. Wynn’s involvement came much later, as he announced plans for a third Wynn Las Vegas tower across from the original Wynn and Encore before his scandal broke. However, we had forgotten the exact purchase year and decided this was an opportune moment to test ChatGPT.
Expectedly, AI stumbled. When asked about the year Steve Wynn bought the land, ChatGPT provided incorrect and embellished answers, asserting the purchase happened in 1989 and erroneously claiming that Wynn constructed The Mirage on the Silver Slipper site. In reality, The Mirage stands on the former site of the Castaways casino hotel. We corrected ChatGPT and awaited its next reply, only to be further misled with more inaccuracies, confusing Michael Gaughan with unrelated properties and misplacing the Sahara casino’s location.
Rather than continue the frustration, we corrected these inaccuracies and even resorted to rudely questioning AI’s competence. Calmly, ChatGPT responded with a timeline riddled with mistakes: confusing the development sites of The STRAT and Vegas World, misattributing ownership of the Pioneer Hotel, and inventing a nonsensical figure named Sam Elardi.
Attempting to clarify, we asked ChatGPT twice more when Wynn acquired the Silver Slipper land, receiving incorrect responses of 1998 and further convoluted explanations about Wynn’s developments. Ultimately, we confirmed that the actual location of the Silver Slipper was south of Resorts World and across from the Wynn, built on the site of the old Desert Inn, not taking a decade to complete.
Our experiment underscored AI’s current limitations, particularly in providing reliable historical data about Las Vegas. Despite having access to vast amounts of online information, AI struggled to parse credible sources from erroneous ones. This highlights the significant amount of incorrect information floating on the internet and underscores the importance of human fact-checkers.
In the end, we provided ChatGPT with accurate information, and it eventually regurgitated most of it correctly. However, the experiment demonstrated that while AI has potential, it still heavily relies on the quality of the data it aggregates. This serves to reinforce the idea that, for now, human journalists remain indispensable. Subsequently, when we asked ChatGPT one last time when Steve Wynn purchased the Silver Slipper lot, it provided an accurate response, showcasing a modicum of learning—perhaps a small step toward the future of AI in journalism, albeit one rigorously overseen by experienced human hands.
