‘Garbage,’ ‘egregious,’ ‘an assault’: museum chair warns AI slop on Inuk war hero John Shiwak making rounds

Résumé détaillé

A post purporting to be a true account of Inuk war hero John Shiwak’s WW I military service is circulating and its has chair of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment Museum Frank Gogos calling it out as “garbage.”

An inaccurate post on the service of Inuk war hero John Shiwak is making the rounds online, and one advocate with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment Museum says it’s all made up, from claims about his service to the AI image included.

Last week, a post on a public Facebook group called World History, went up on Shiwak’s war service. The post, which has a note that it is AI content, has more than 1,000 shares. Many of the comments expressed admiration for Shiwak, while some recognized the post for its numerous errors and false claims.

"First and foremost is an insult to their family. It's an insult to his memory. It's an insult to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. It's an insult to the Royal Newfoundland Regiment," Frank Gogos told CBC News.

"It's an unmitigated assault on everything that, you know, we should be standing for and especially during Remembrance Week."

Lance-Cpl. Shiwak enlisted with the regiment in 1915 and earned a reputation as a skilled marksman. He was killed in the village of Masnières in northern France by a German shell, along with other soldiers, on Nov. 21, 1917.

Frank Gogos worries that if effort isn't made to combat this post, it could become the story people associate with John Shiwak. (Elizabeth Whitten/CBC)

Gogos said over the weekend people began reaching out to him about the post and on Saturday, he fired off a rebuttal on Facebook, lambasting its falsehoods.

"What I read was absolutely atrocious. It was the biggest insult I think I've ever seen when it comes to the memory of one of our soldiers," he said.

The entire post was a work of fiction that didn’t tell the true story about Shiwak, said Gogos. For example, it claims Shiwak fought in the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel, picking off Germans soldiers from a shell hole. In fact, Shiwak didn’t enlist until after the battle.

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