Man Behind Website That Listed Fake Halloween Parade Says It Was ‘Just a Mistake’: ‘We Are Highly Embarrassed’

The man behind the viral AI website that listed a fake Halloween parade leading to thousands of people gathering along the streets of Dublin on Thursday, Oct. 31, says it was “just a mistake."

Nazir Ali, owner of the website MySpiritHalloween.com, told Wired in an interview published on Nov. 1 that “this was just a mistake” and insisted he and others who work on the site are not scammers.

He admitted that ChatGPT was used to help them write the article in question, but not in its entirety. He claimed artificial intelligence was involved in about 10 to 20 % of the article’s development, while “we were 80 % involved.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“We apologize to our Irish brothers,” Ali told the outlet. “We are highly disappointed, highly embarrassed, and honestly, we are feeling bad.”

The Halloween parade was said to be organized by Macnas, according to CBS News. The Irish theater company had previously staged a yearly Halloween parade in Dublin beginning in 2013, but there was none planned for this year, per The Independent.

Ali told the BBC that a writer used a listing from a previous parade when creating the post, and was "unaware" that the parade was not occurring.

The website owner claimed the intentions of those who work on MySpiritHalloween.com “are very pure,” and suggested they tried their best to produce “authentic content.”

"No one in Ireland informed us that this parade was not going to happen,” he said, per the BBC. “If they told us before the evening we would have removed it.”

Ali said the listing was changed as soon as they learned of the mistake. "We even wrote ‘this has been canceled,’ but it was too late," he told Wired.

Ali did not have a direct answer when the outlet asked if the website’s content creators will continue to rely on AI to assist them with their work. But he admitted they “should double check” and “triple check” their work moving forward.

“We don't actually want to mislead any of our Irish brothers,” Ali said before reiterating, “This was just a mistake.”

Ali told Wired that MySpiritHalloween.com, which he expects MySpiritHalloween will be deranked on Google as a result of the debacle, has only been operating for about three months.

The website generates revenue by posting about holiday events around the globe, and according to the owner, it makes money through Google Ads and affiliate marketing, and creators only work about three or four months out of the year.

Police, meanwhile, were able to clear the streets of Dublin after crowds formed for the non-existent parade.