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CNET's AI explainer said $10,000 at 3% earns $10,300 in a year
What the AI said
A saver depositing $10,000 in an account earning 3% compounded annually would earn $10,300 after the first year.
What was actually true
The saver earns $300 in interest. $10,300 is the ending balance, not the earnings.
Cost or impact
CNET audited the 77 AI-assisted stories, corrected several (some 'substantial'), and paused the AI tool. The stories were about 1% of CNET's output in that period.
Who caught it
Futurism reported the errors; CNET then ran its own audit.
Check that would have caught it Our analysis
recompute in code. Interest on a principal is one line of arithmetic. Compute it; don't let a language model narrate it.
This is our judgment, not something the sources say. How we assign it.
Sources
- cnn.comhttps://www.cnn.com/2023/01/25/tech/cnet-ai-tool-news-stories
- futurism.comhttps://futurism.com/cnet-ai-errors
- vice.comhttps://www.vice.com/en/article/cnet-defends-use-of-ai-blogger-after-embarrassing-163-word-correction-humans-make-mistakes-too/
Links last checked Oct 24, 2026. If something here is wrong, send a correction.