Bill Simmons ended his partnership with ChatGPT after audience backlash against AI-generated content, including segments mimicking Roger Ebert’s film reviews. Simmons told Bloomberg, “Our audience just didn’t like them,” citing the decision to terminate the collaboration. The move follows criticism of AI-driven segments on his podcasts and The Ringer’s network.
Simmons faced internal pushback for using ChatGPT to generate Ebert-style reviews of films post-2013, including The Nice Guys. Co-hosts criticized the segments, with one calling it “bottom of the barrel stuff.” OpenAI spent an estimated $11.2 million on podcast ads, but Simmons’ partnership ended as audiences rejected the AI integration.