TUAW has recently relaunched after almost a decade of being offline. However, it seems that the new owners have transformed the once reputable Apple news source into an AI-generated content farm. Over the past week, the site began publishing "new" articles that bear the names of writers who haven't worked there for over ten years. The content itself appears to be nearly identical to what has been published on MacRumors and other publications. Accompanying these AI-generated articles are author pages with the names of former writers and AI-generated profile photos. This deceptive tactic was brought to light by Christina Warren, who previously wrote for TUAW in 2009. She addressed the issue, stating that someone purchased the TUAW domain, populated it with AI-generated content, and reused her name from a job she had when she was 21 years old.

This attempt seems to be an SEO scam, but it won't be effective in 2024 as Google has changed its algorithm. Originally launched in 2004, TUAW was shut down by AOL in 2015. While much of the site's original archive can still be accessed on Engadget, the TUAW domain was sold to "Web Orange Limited" in 2024. The sale did not include the TUAW archive, but it appears that Web Orange Limited found a dubious way around this. On their website's about page, they claim to have rewritten the content from archived versions available on archive. org, aiming to preserve TUAW's history while updating it to meet modern standards and relevance. It is unclear if AI was utilized for these "rewrites, " but a comparison between the original archive on Engadget and the "rewritten" content on TUAW suggests that little effort was put into the task by Web Orange Limited. Warren points out that the "rewrites" aren't even attributed to the correct names, with articles dating back to 2004, despite her not joining the site until 2007. Queries regarding the use of AI and the rationale behind using former writers' bylines with AI-generated profile photos have been sent to TUAW and Yahoo, the owner of Engadget, but responses are yet to be received.