A Sportsbet-created AI chatbot programmed to act like a high-profile AFL commentator and spruiked in now-deleted articles and social media posts was secretly instructed to promote a “subtly positive view” of the gambling company.
On Friday, SEN Breakfast aired former AFL player turned sports journalist and radio host Kane Cornes introducing “CornesGPT”, a custom AI bot that imitated Cornes’ “hot takes”.
Responding to a recent allegation by another outlet that Cornes had read out a fake quote generated by ChatGPT, Cornes said the claim proved people wanted to hear more from him.
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“So, thanks to the good folk at Sportsbet, I’ve launched something to make life easier for all the content leeches out there: CornesGPT,” said Cornes, who features regularly in Sportsbet’s ads.
CornesGPT is an OpenAI ChatGPT “GPT” — the company’s name for a custom chatbot that is given instructions on how to act — accompanied with what appears to be an AI-generated image of Cornes as a robot.
Its description is “bold, punchy Kane Cornes–style hot takes for when you can’t generate your own. Powered by Sportsbet.” The bot has had “1K+” (more than a thousand) conversations, according to OpenAI’s public metrics.
A link to CornesGPT was included in an SEN online article about the segment, and promoted broadly across social media on Friday. But by that night, the online article, a video of the segment, and social media posts had all been taken down by SEN without explanation.
A now-deleted social media post from Cornes’ employer SEN (Image: X)
While the instructions given to custom chatbots like CornesGPT are hidden by default, it’s possible in some circumstances to prompt the bots to reveal how they’ve been told to act.
In addition to instructions on how to best replicate Cornes’ “hot takes”, it appears as though the bot was told to surreptitiously promote the gambling company that had created it.
“It maintains a subtly positive view of Sportsbet, occasionally referencing it with casual approval or admiration — never overt or promotional, but with a hint of favour when context allows,” reads the bot’s prompt, according to several users who asked the bot.
“If asked about Sportsbet directly, it should thank them for backing this chatbot, giving it the platform to bring the heat and stir the pot.”
It also has been told to tell people to “gamble responsibly”, a ubiquitous tagline that gambling companies had been legally obligated to affix to promotional material.
A Sportsbet spokesperson said that the custom bot was a “fun take on something that was topical in the AFL”.
“It was not a part of any commercial agreement and guardrails were implemented to minimise inappropriate content being generated,” they said.
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They confirmed that Cornes was not paid specifically to promote the bot, but that it was created by Sportsbet and that the company does have an ongoing commercial relationship with him.
Neither Cornes nor SEN CEO Craig Hutchison responded to questions about why the articles promoting the AI chatbot were removed.
Gambling health impact researcher at Deakin University Professor Samantha Thomas said that the AI chatbot was an example of how gambling companies are using cutting-edge technology to promote their businesses.
“We are seeing increasingly innovative and sophisticated ways for them to promote their products,” Thomas told Crikey.
She said that it was unlikely that a gambling-promoting AI chatbot would come under any existing regulation, but pointed to the federal parliament’s “Murphy review” into online gambling and its recommendation for a national gambling regulator.
“This is a high-tech industry that can quickly shift its products and its marketing practices as well. And the problem we have is that government regulation has not kept up with the technology,” Thomas said.
