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Yep, they got me. In our October edition of Canadian Contractor I published a guest column titled “Why men and women need different PPE” by Evelyn Long, an editor at Renovated.com. Last week I found out that “Evelyn Long” doesn’t exist. At best, she’s a fake profile fronting the work of a content farm. At worst, she’s an AI and I never interacted with a human being throughout the entire pitch and submission process. Since a big part of my job is to evaluate sources and ensure only trustworthy content makes it to you through our channel, this discovery was deeply embarrassing. It was especially humiliating because I was one of those old-school editors who, in my arrogance, scoffed at the thought that I could ever be fooled by a machine when it comes to the written word. I didn’t pay enough attention to the warnings that AI was approaching levels of sophistication that would make this kind of thing possible, and now my product has paid the price. I offer my apologies to you, my readers, and commit to doing better in the future (more on that below).
In the interests of turning this failure into a teachable moment, I’d like to share how this all came about. I’ve included the full email string with Evelyn at the end of this article, with my comments and thinking at the time included. It’s long, but I think it’s instructive to see just how adept at carrying on a realistic conversation these tools now are.
All excuses and explanations aside, I’ve broken my promise to you to not publish AI-generated material without clearly identifying it as such. The online versions of Evelyn’s column have been taken down, but there’s nothing I can do about the print edition except apologize and tell you how we’re going to avoid this in the future.
As you can see from the email string, I’ve already learned a lot about how to identify AI content. I’ll be using those tools religiously. I’ll also be asking new contributors for a quick “get to know you” video call before letting them into the channel. Hopefully it will be at least few years before AI is able to game those methods, too.
And, for what it’s worth, everyone within reach of this is now aware that “Evelyn Long,” “Rose Morrison,” “Peter Chambers,” “Olivia Elsher,” “Ellie Gabel” and the rest of the merry band at Renovated.com are fakes. Go ahead and enjoy their stuff if you wish, but be aware you’d be just as well off with a Google search for the information you’re looking for.
I wonder if Building Safety Journal (the International Code Council’s publication), PBCtoday, the American Society of Home Inspectors, the U.S. Green Building Council, the National Association of Realtors, the National Centre for Construction Education and Research, Breaking Ground (a homebuilding non-profit) and Apartment Therapy are aware that Renovated.com is listing them in its “Featured on…” section. Canadian Contractor may soon be joining them and there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s kind of like going to Hell – you don’t want to be there but the company is excellent.
The father of modern computing, Alan Turing, famously said that a computer should be considered to be capable of thought if it’s responses in conversation were indistinguishable from a person’s. We’re obviously a lot closer to that point than I thought.
My interactions with Evelyn
My brief working relationship with Evelyn Long began with this email:
From: Evelyn Long <evelyn@renovated.com>
Date: Friday, August 15, 2025 at 7:30 AM
To: Patrick Flannery <PF*******@****************ia.com>
Subject: New construction safety writer for Canadian Contractor
Hey Patrick,
I’m interested in writing for Canadian Contractor and I was wondering if you have any contributor openings. I’m the construction editor at Renovated magazine with work in the construction safety field featured on Construction Executive, Fieldwire, and more.
Here are some samples of my work:
–https://www.constructionexec.com/article/responding-to-heat-stress-on-construction-sites-dry-heat-vs-humid-heat
–https://constructionjobs.com/post/how-to-foster-a-safety-first-mindset-among-your-team
–https://www.fieldwire.com/blog/mental-health-initiatives-construction-sites/
Would you like to hear some topic ideas from me?
Have a great day!
Evelyn
This is an excellent introduction letter. Straight to the point with links to published items. I receive much, much worse from human writers. Nothing in the address that suggests sketchy foreign origins.
The sites where Evelyn’s work has appeared are real construction communication sites run by human editors. All good so far, and evidence that I’m not the first editor Evelyn has fooled.
The Renovated.com site is a little…unusual. It’s a mis-mash of lifestyle-type content (“How to pick the right Christmas tree species”) with interior design (“The best sleeper sofas”) and grittier construction topics (“Is glulam an asset to sustainable construction?”). But there’s nothing wrong with unusual. In fact, we’ve had internal discussions about incorporating more design content into our channel. Maybe Renovated.com is just ahead of the trend.
The About page is also unusual enough that, in retrospect, it should have triggered a more in-depth investigation by me. It did in Kirstyn Brown, editor of our sister publication, MRO, which is how we discovered Evelyn is a bot. The photos of Evelyn and managing editor “Rose Morrison” look like glamour spreads in Vogue. The attached bios are incredibly thin. Aside from telling us that the two “editors” like their jobs and are good at them, we learn only that Evelyn likes crab cakes and Rose grew up in a “family of contractors.” Just the kind of answer you’d get if you asked ChatGPT to make up a personal detail for a fictional construction magazine editor.
What I didn’t do – because I’m old – but Kirstyn did, was click through to their social media profiles. Things get even thinner there. All the links to social media go to Renovated.com sites…Evelyn doesn’t appear to have accounts on anything except Instagram. The Renovated.com Twitter account has no posts. Posts on Facebook are just reposts of the website content. There is no “Evelyn Long, Renovated.com editor,” on LinkedIn.
Evelyn’s Instagram account is different. The photography is professional-grade…but this is perhaps not surprising for someone purporting to be a professional journalist. There are some photos that look less staged, but it wouldn’t be beyond the capabilities of AI to fake that. It’s the text that is convincing while also having a whiff of artificiality. The content runs about as deep as a Hallmark card…but again, not unusual for influencers in the lifestyle space.
But I didn’t check the socials. And I skated past the other flags on the grounds that this appeared to be a person coming more from the lifestyle space, where curating a certain image is almost as important as generating good content. So I replied:
Hi, Evelyn. I would be interested in hearing your pitches. I don’t have a present need but budget season is approaching and I might be able to throw you something for next year.
Got this back:
Hi Patrick,
Thanks so much for getting back to me! Some of my article ideas are below:
-X Certifications for Contractors to Become Experts in Green Building
-Tackling Mental Health Taboos in the Trades
-X Workplace Safety Myths in the Construction Industry
-Can Promoting Mental Health Awareness Create a Safer Workplace?
-Why Do Men and Women Need Different PPE? X Insights
I also wanted to note that because I’m trying to build my portfolio out with some samples from publications in Canada, I would be willing to write these articles just for a byline, if that’s something you’d be interested in.
Are you interested in moving forward with any of these topics?
Again, straight up the middle for a young freelancer looking for work. It’s free, and I don’t have to run it if it’s garbage. What’s to lose?
Me:
Happy to publish for a byline if it serves our readers.
The men/women PPE article sounds good.
Evelyn comes right back. Wonderfully prompt responses.
Hi Patrick,
Sounds great! I’ll get this on my schedule and I should have a draft for you by early September. Let me know if you have any editorial guidelines I should be aware of in the meantime.
Promised in two weeks! I’m in love. Then…
Hey Patrick,
Hope you’re well! I just wanted to touch base because my schedule ended up being a lot busier in August and early September than I expected, so I’ll have this article ready for you around the end of the month. Let me know if you have any questions in the meantime.
It doesn’t get much more realistic than that. The freelancer has lost track of my assignment and is begging for more time. I’m just thinking of using it online so I don’t really care when it comes in. But, honestly, it’s weird that the bot sent that. Had its masters had some kind of technical glitch? If so, it’s ironic that all it did was contribute to the exchange’s authenticity.
A couple weeks later, the article arrives. I have a need in my upcoming print edition and a one-page guest column is just right. The content is fine and topical – an overview of things contractors should think about when sourcing PPE for women.
Warning: things are about to get a lot more embarrassing for me from here. Starting with my exchange about gender semantics with a robot.
Hi, Evelyn. This looks good, thanks. Since it’s about the right length for a guest column, can you provide a headshot for me to run with it, please.
I’ve attached my edited version. I changed “gender” to “sex” throughout because sex is the relevant metric for determining PPE fit in all cases…gender might not be.
…which gets this positive response:
That change sounds great, and I agree that it’s probably more accurate! Just a quick question, will the links be included in the article when it’s published? I link all the sources I use for my research in the article, and I like to make sure they’re in there to avoid any backlash from readers who feel that information isn’t accurately cited.
My headshot is attached here as well.
Note to self: run all headshots through Sightengine in future.
Evelyn has missed the fact that I’m talking about running the column in print, but she wouldn’t be the first contributor to do that. So I reply:
This version is for the print edition, Evelyn, so links don’t do much!
Will include links when I post it online but holding off for now until after the magazine mails.
Evelyn:
Totally makes sense, I just wanted to confirm! Do you have an idea of when the magazine will mail? I like to keep an eye out for published articles when I can.
The bot is explaining a bit too much but not enough to stop me as I plow forward in my quest for free content. I let it know the mail date is end of October.
November 7, I get this:
Hi Patrick,
I hope you’re well! I just wanted to check in and see if there’s a date I can anticipate my article being published. I know you mentioned the targeted mail date was last week and I wasn’t sure how quickly you put things on the site after everything is mailed out.
Friendly me, loving my new free freelancer, sends:
Hi, Evelyn. You are right here on page 26.
https://issuu.com/annexbusinessmedia/docs/cc_-_october_2025
Our digital team doesn’t have the web articles up yet but they should be coming soon.
I hope the engineer who programmed Evelyn at the content farm got Employee of the Month for that one. But they don’t blow the grift by coming right back with greedy demands, just a nice, restrained “thank you.”
Thanks so much for letting me know and sharing the magazine with me! It looks really great.
Then I really crap the bed:
Glad you liked it. If you have ideas for more safety-focused columns, I’m all ears.
That’s right, I’m now asking the bot for more content. You’ll be amazed to find out it was only too happy to comply.
Hope you’re well! I’d definitely love to share some more ideas! What do you think about this topic: How to Avoid the Most Common Causes of Electrocution on Jobsites?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Thanks and have a good weekend,
It’s even getting the Friday sign-off right. How was I to know?
The topic suggested is excellent for a safety column. At this point, I’m considering making Evelyn a regular. So I send:
Sounds good! Lay it on me.
While waiting for Evelyn to come back with the requested article, the email came around warning our editorial team that Evelyn and her friends at Renovated.com are at best fake accounts submitting AI-generated content from a content farm and at worst, AIs themselves. The evidence? Well, there were all the weird things mentioned above that I managed to rationalize as being due to inexperience and/or someone not coming from the construction industry. But scratching the surface revealed more. Evelyn’s headshot and the photos on her Instagram feed, when run through an online app called Sightengine, come up between 80 and 99% likely to be generated by AI. Checking “About this Account” on Instagram shows the origin as the Phillipines. Evelyn is supposed to be from Lancaster, Penn.
I emailed Evelyn out of anger and betrayal:
It’s come to my attention that this is a bot account providing AI-written material. Do not communicate with me any further.
The robot is nothing if not cool under pressure:
That’s a claim I take very seriously, as writing is my livelihood. I can guarantee that my article wasn’t AI-generated in any way. I don’t use AI for any writing and wouldn’t expect you or any publisher to accept that. If you’d like, I can take a look over it and see about changing the tone to make it feel more personable. Is there something specific that made you believe that? I’d be happy to take a second look and make a few adjustments based on your feedback.
But it’s made a fatal mistake. It doesn’t understand that the article in question has already been published in a print edition. A rewrite is moot. This is something a human would understand, especially a human who is supposed to be the editor of her own online B2B channel.
I have no doubt at this point that Evelyn is at the very least a fake account and not at all the person who submitted the column. But I’m curious, so I send:
There’s an easy way to clear this up. Let’s get on a Zoom call to discuss and I’ll offer my apologies in person.
That seems to have ended the conversation. No response from Evelyn, and it’s been a couple weeks now.