Aurora Cannabis bats away two fake news stories 👀

FAKE NEWS
Aurora Cannabis denies two fake news stories published on Investing.com 

It’s journalism in 2025: Canadian firm Aurora Cannabis denied two false stories published on Investing.com this week. 

The first story, posted on Wednesday, claimed Aurora agreed to acquire MedLeaf Therapeutics, an Australian medical cannabis firm, for $215 million in cash and stock.

Another story, published later on Wednesday, claimed Aurora entered into a strategic partnership with MediPharm GmbH to supply cannabis to the German medical market.

Both stories are false, Aurora said in a pair of statements. 

Wait, what? In a disclaimer below the stories, Investing.com said the stories were written by AI trolling through SEC filings, but checked by a human editor. MJBizDaily also wrote its own story on the claim, but evidently neither publication reached out to Aurora for comment. 

Meta data from a Google search shows the MJBiz story, but it was quickly deleted. The Investing.com stories were deleted as well. Neither publication responded to a request for comment on Thursday. 

Aurora as well sent a note to reporters on Thursday evening asking them to verify any further information before reporting further about the company. 

What they’re saying: “Aurora confirms that it is not in possession of material non-public information and advises investors that Investing.com should not be considered a credible source of information regarding the Company,” it said in a statement.

“Any information regarding material corporate transactions will be announced directly by the Company to the market as soon as it is appropriate to do so.”

Our take: Human journalists of course get things wrong. Being transparent about those mistakes is critical to building reader trust. But letting AI report stories unchecked — and then aggregating those stories for other publications — is how misinformation travels.

It’s a cautionary tale for journalism in 2025. We’ll aim much higher at Cultivated. 

-JB/ZH

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And more:

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World's biggest gummy weighs in at 278 pounds 🧸

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