Bill Simmons’s Co-Hosts Are Tired of His A.I. Antics

Bill Simmons, the iconoclastic podcaster and sports columnist, often uses his airtime to dissect the foibles of well-known figures such as Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the National Football League, and Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

But this week the online ire is focused on Mr. Simmons.

Film buffs are complaining about several instances in which Mr. Simmons used ChatGPT — which he sometimes accidentally mispronounces “ChatGBT” — to approximate the opinions of the deceased film critic Roger Ebert in his movie podcast, “The Rewatchables.” Some argued that it was disrespectful of Mr. Ebert; others said it was incongruous that Mr. Simmons, a columnist, would use technology to misappropriate another writer’s work.

Ads from OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, have run on the show this year.

Mr. Simmons’s frequent co-host on “The Rewatchables,” Sean Fennessey, inflamed the controversy on Sunday when he publicly criticized that use of A.I. alongside another colleague, Amanda Dobbins. All three work for The Ringer, the media company and podcast network that Mr. Simmons founded in 2016 and is now owned by Spotify.

In an interview on the podcast “Talk Easy,” Sam Fragoso, its host, asked Mr. Fennessey and Ms. Dobbins whether they had a “moral issue” with the use of A.I. to channel Mr. Ebert now that OpenAI was a sponsor.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/business/media/bill-simmons-chat-gpt-open-ai-roger-ebert.html