A fake press release put our college in an AI-generated story

I walked into work one day last week anticipating a fairly standard Thursday in the office. Perhaps this was my downfall. About halfway through the morning, I read an email and had to quite quickly put my coffee back down on the desk.

I’d been forwarded a press release from a media contact, with a message essentially along the lines of “is this you?” It had Nottingham College in the headline and peppered throughout the copy, which was being pitched to journalists and only loosely attributed to a client based in the US that was not linked to education.

The story itself isn’t especially relevant – though it wasn’t exactly glowing with praise – but what struck me was that this had come completely out of the blue.