Instead of a masterpiece, an accusation of using ChatGPT. And there is still no errata

There is no doubt that it is rare for an errata to be so eagerly awaited by the broadly understood market. One could even go so far as to say that this is the most famous correction in the Polish publishing industry in recent years. Unfortunately, it still exists in the world of announcements. And maybe it will stay that way. Because it cannot be ruled out that the author and the publishing house are currently playing for timehoping that the topic will die. This is one of the reasons to remember the scandal from the end of 2025.

The story begins in early November last year. Artur Wójcik, who presents himself on social media as “a historian, popularizer and podcaster, debunker of myths, describer of shuria and all kinds of pseudoscience,” publishes a post on X that begins with the following words: “I haven’t felt such embarrassment for a long time.” And he goes on to present the matter:

Karolina Opolska, a journalist and journalism lecturer, did not have the courage to admit that in her book… she simply made up some of the footnotes. She didn’t make a mistake, she invented non-existent books, or she didn’t verify what the AI ​​spat out.

On Monday, I asked her publicly on the X platform why she did such a thing. It is difficult to speak of a provocation or a joke here, these fictitious sources are too banal to be an intentional pastiche (the case of Mockery). This is not a matter of an error in the author’s name, a mistake in the title, year of publication or page number. We are talking about completely fictitious publications, allegedly authored by famous historians

Wójcik then listed three non-existent publications that were included in the footnotes of the book “Conspiracy Theory, or the True History of the World”. The historian also noted that his findings concern a small fragment of Karolina Opolska’s book. The whistleblower also described the author’s behavior, which took a bizarre form. The journalist allegedly blamed the publishing house, sought support among friends she shared with Wójcik and tried to sweep the matter under the carpet. The historian concluded his entry as follows:

Let us not delude ourselves that anyone in the media will publicize the matter. There will be no articles like “A famous journalist invents books in footnotes.” Cynarski, a Lechian hoplologist, is a lucky coincidence, so articles appeared on news portals. A mechanism we know well will work here: cronyism and misunderstood professional solidarity.

Let’s use AI, but wisely

It quickly turned out that Wójcik was right, but only partially. Because this strangely understood professional solidarity actually took place, but it did not apply to everyone. However, some media took up the topic and the matter became loud. Even very loud for a moment. And in fact, this should not be surprising – the author is a well-known journalist who… currently works, among others, on TVP Infoand previously she was associated with Onet or TOK FM. It is also worth emphasizing the fact that Opolska is the Deputy Head of the Department of Journalism and New Media at the Civitas University (collegium Civitas until 2025). Star and mentor.

The book “Conspiracy theory, or the true history of the world” was published by Harde publishing house, part of the ZPR Media Group. Relatively fast it published a statement in which it defended Karolina Opolska. The content referred to three non-existent publications indicated by Wójcik and argued that the incorrect footnotes were the result of… a technical error. It also stated that “at no stage was the book written or co-created by AI tools.” The whole thing was supplemented with the following paragraph:

After the author’s consultations and explanations, we have no objections to her work. Her book is very well documented with sources and Karolina Opolska demonstrated exceptional reliability when describing such a difficult subject.

Fire extinguished? NO – the rescue team mistook water for gasoline. Some commenters asked how the publisher determined that the book was not written using AI at any stage. Because he would only be sure of this if the author was locked in a bunker without access to the Internet while creating the book. However, this was the classic icing on the cake. As part of the sponge cake and cream, Internet users followed the rest of the footnotes. It quickly turned out that the three “errors” referred to by the publisher’s representative were just the tip of the iceberg. Well, specific examples of the use of the so-called solutions were indicated. artificial intelligence.

At this stage, the publishing house seems to have decided to close the door. It was different in the case of Karolina Opolska. On November 7, the author of the book declared on the X website that “an errata from the publishing house will be published soon, which will explain everything.” She added that many distortions appeared in the public space around the publication. And when asked when the errata would appear, she replied:

I hope as soon as possible. It will definitely take a few days. But it definitely will be.

A few days passed, then weeks, now months. No errata. I tried to contact Karolina Opolska about this matter, but it was unsuccessful. And the publisher’s representative wrote back to me:

Currently, I do not have any new information on this matter, if new information appears, HARDE Publishing House will issue a statement that will be sent to the media.

I asked a few additional questions, including: whether the book is still in distribution, whether the version with a technical error is current and whether the publishing house has no objections to Karolina Opolska’s work. Unfortunately, I did not receive an answer.

Some say that the number of “technical errors” was very large and it took a lot of time to analyze all of them for the errata. Others will think that this is a classic waiting game: people will eventually forgetnowadays even big scandals die quickly by starvation. And this is not a big scandal. Still others will call for stop the hate. Because such a narrative has already appeared. Some of the journalistic community did not disappoint the author. Back in November you could read that Opole does not eat or sleep because a campaign against it was organized on the Internet.

Quite recently, the journalist published an entry on Facebook as part of the Anti-Depression Day. You can find the following fragment in it:

Have I made mistakes? Not one. Oh! What I wouldn’t give to take back some of my decisions or be more careful with others (although I still foolishly believe that every decision we make, good or bad, shapes us into who we are, and everything happens for a reason). Should I put up with hate because of this? NO.