So it looks like all of the fake review quotes for the Megalopolis trailer that was taken down last week were an AI after all. Not only that, but Eddie Egan, who was in charge of the trailer material, has been removed from the film's marketing team.
Deadline reported Friday that a post-mortem investigation confirmed that the whole thing was the work of an AI. Neither Egan nor Megalopolis production company Lionsgate intended to falsify the quotes, which they purported to be from contemporary reviews of Megalopolis director Francis Ford Coppola's previous films.
Some of the quotes in the trailer suggest that critics called The Godfather a “sloppy, self-indulgent film” and Apocalypse Now an “epic flop,” but as Vulture pointed out when it first reported that the quotes were false, the actual reviews they were quoted from not only said no such thing, but were in fact largely complimentary of the film.
It's easy to see why this happened: AI is already well known for lying with casual confidence, and even companies developing AI products make factual errors in their presentations.
