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Incident 612: Microsoft AI Poll Allegedly Causes Reputational Harm of The Guardian Newspaper

Responded
Description: An AI-generated poll by Microsoft, displayed alongside a Guardian article, inappropriately speculated on the cause of Lilie James's death, leading to public backlash and alleged reputational damage for The Guardian. Microsoft acknowledged the issue, subsequently deactivating such polls and revising its AI content policies.

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Entities

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Alleged: Microsoft developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed The Guardian and Family of Lilie James.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
612
Report Count
17
Incident Date
2023-10-31
Editors
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

7.3. Lack of capability or robustness

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. AI system safety, failures, and limitations

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

AI

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Unintentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

+8
Microsoft accused of damaging Guardian’s reputation with AI-generated poll
+3
Microsoft under fire over AI-generated poll about death of 21-year-old woman on its news platform
+3
Microsoft Criticized for Embedding ‘Crass’ A.I. Poll Beside News Article
The Guardian accuses Microsoft of damaging its reputation with offensive AI-generated poll
Microsoft accused of damaging Guardian’s reputation with AI-generated poll

Microsoft accused of damaging Guardian’s reputation with AI-generated poll

theguardian.com

Inserted AI-generated Microsoft poll about woman’s death rankles The Guardian – Ars Technica

Inserted AI-generated Microsoft poll about woman’s death rankles The Guardian – Ars Technica

arstechnica.com

The Guardian criticizes Microsoft over insensitive AI-generated poll

The Guardian criticizes Microsoft over insensitive AI-generated poll

readwrite.com

Guardian accuses Microsoft of inserting ‘crass’ AI poll in story about woman’s death

Guardian accuses Microsoft of inserting ‘crass’ AI poll in story about woman’s death

telegraph.co.uk

Microsoft AI inserted a distasteful poll into a news report about a woman’s death

Microsoft AI inserted a distasteful poll into a news report about a woman’s death

theverge.com

The Guardian battles controversy over offensive AI-backed poll, blames Microsoft for it

The Guardian battles controversy over offensive AI-backed poll, blames Microsoft for it

neowin.net

AI-Generated Poll Speculating on Woman’s Death Sparks Fight Between Microsoft and Guardian Newspaper

AI-Generated Poll Speculating on Woman’s Death Sparks Fight Between Microsoft and Guardian Newspaper

themessenger.com

Microsoft's AI News Poll Ticks Off UK Newspaper

Microsoft's AI News Poll Ticks Off UK Newspaper

fool.com

Microsoft under fire over AI-generated poll about death of 21-year-old woman on its news platform

Microsoft under fire over AI-generated poll about death of 21-year-old woman on its news platform

businessinsider.com

Microsoft launches probe after AI poll on woman's death sparks blowback

Microsoft launches probe after AI poll on woman's death sparks blowback

axios.com

It's another AI failure for Microsoft News as it asks users to vote on how a young woman died

It's another AI failure for Microsoft News as it asks users to vote on how a young woman died

windowscentral.com

Microsoft's AI Blunder: Inappropriate Poll Sparks Public Outrage

Microsoft's AI Blunder: Inappropriate Poll Sparks Public Outrage

boingboing.net

Microsoft Criticized for Embedding ‘Crass’ A.I. Poll Beside News Article

Microsoft Criticized for Embedding ‘Crass’ A.I. Poll Beside News Article

nytimes.com

Microsoft Runs Ghoulish AI Poll Next to Article About a Dead Woman

Microsoft Runs Ghoulish AI Poll Next to Article About a Dead Woman

futurism.com

Microsoft Nixes AI-Generated News Polls After One Asked About Woman's Death

Microsoft Nixes AI-Generated News Polls After One Asked About Woman's Death

extremetech.com

Microsoft AI inserts ‘distressing’ poll in article

Microsoft AI inserts ‘distressing’ poll in article

ia.acs.org.au

The Guardian accuses Microsoft of damaging its reputation with offensive AI-generated poll

The Guardian accuses Microsoft of damaging its reputation with offensive AI-generated poll

searchengineland.com

Microsoft accused of damaging Guardian’s reputation with AI-generated poll
theguardian.com · 2023

The Guardian has accused Microsoft of damaging its journalistic reputation by publishing an AI-generated poll speculating on the cause of a woman’s death next to an article by the news publisher.

Microsoft’s news aggregation service publish…

Inserted AI-generated Microsoft poll about woman’s death rankles The Guardian – Ars Technica
arstechnica.com · 2023

On Tuesday, The Guardian accused Microsoft of damaging its journalistic reputation by publishing an AI-generated poll beside one of its articles on the Microsoft Start website. The poll, created by an AI model on Microsoft's news platform,…

The Guardian criticizes Microsoft over insensitive AI-generated poll
readwrite.com · 2023

Microsoft’s recent use of an AI-generated poll has sparked criticism from The Guardian, one of the UK’s leading news publishers. The tech giant’s news aggregation service displayed the automated poll alongside a Guardian article detailing t…

Guardian accuses Microsoft of inserting ‘crass’ AI poll in story about woman’s death
telegraph.co.uk · 2023

The Guardian is demanding compensation from Microsoft after the tech giant inserted a "crass" AI-generated poll into one of its articles that asked readers to speculate on the cause of someone's death.

MSN, which has a licence to re-run som…

Microsoft AI inserted a distasteful poll into a news report about a woman’s death
theverge.com · 2023

More than three years after Microsoft gutted its news divisions and replaced their work with AI and algorithmic automation, the content generated by its systems continues to contain grave errors that human involvement could, or should, have…

The Guardian battles controversy over offensive AI-backed poll, blames Microsoft for it
neowin.net · 2023

In 2020, Microsoft announced huge layoffs across MSN and Azure organizations, among others, due to the company replacing its editor and curators with AI algorithms. Now, the algorithms seem to have caused an issue between Microsoft and The …

AI-Generated Poll Speculating on Woman’s Death Sparks Fight Between Microsoft and Guardian Newspaper
themessenger.com · 2023

The Guardian claims that Microsoft has "deeply damaged" its reputation after an AI-generated poll was discovered running on a Guardian article about a woman found dead in Australia that was also published on Microsoft Start, a news aggregat…

Microsoft's AI News Poll Ticks Off UK Newspaper
fool.com · 2023

What if instead of being deviously calculating, robots just turned out to be blazingly insensitive? You know, not end the world – just make it intolerable.

UK newspaper The Guardian submitted a complaint to Microsoft on Tuesday after the Mi…

Microsoft under fire over AI-generated poll about death of 21-year-old woman on its news platform
businessinsider.com · 2023

A newspaper publisher accused Microsoft of damaging its reputation after an AI-generated poll appeared next to one of its articles on an aggregation platform.

The Guardian reported on Lilie James, a 21-year-old water polo coach who was foun…

Microsoft launches probe after AI poll on woman's death sparks blowback
axios.com · 2023
Sara Fischer post-incident response

Microsoft has shut off all its AI-generated polls on news articles and launched an investigation after the Guardian Media Group blasted the tech giant for a poll that ran alongside a story about a woman's death.

Driving the news: "A poll sh…

It's another AI failure for Microsoft News as it asks users to vote on how a young woman died
windowscentral.com · 2023

With generative AI now more widespread than ever, the importance of human intervention is becoming more apparent. It's barely been three months since Microsoft published an AI-generated article recommending Ottawa Food Bank as a top tourist…

Microsoft's AI Blunder: Inappropriate Poll Sparks Public Outrage
boingboing.net · 2023

Microsoft is facing backlash after it used AI to create an insensitive poll speculating on the cause of a woman's death that was published alongside an article from The Guardian on Microsoft's news aggregation service, Microsoft Start.

The …

Microsoft Criticized for Embedding ‘Crass’ A.I. Poll Beside News Article
nytimes.com · 2023

An auto-generated poll that Microsoft embedded on its news aggregating platform alongside a Guardian article was “crass” and caused significant damage to The Guardian’s reputation, the newspaper said on Thursday.

The poll, which was posted …

Microsoft Runs Ghoulish AI Poll Next to Article About a Dead Woman
futurism.com · 2023

How's AI in the media going? Well, Microsoft apparently ran a disgusting AI-generated poll next to a syndicated article about a woman who'd been found dead in Australia — and The Guardian, which published the original article in question, w…

Microsoft Nixes AI-Generated News Polls After One Asked About Woman's Death
extremetech.com · 2023
Josh Norem post-incident response

As AI begins to eat its way into our lives more each day, its limitations become more obvious as it encounters situations its creators might not have envisioned. The latest example comes from Microsoft, which used AI to insert polls next to…

Microsoft AI inserts ‘distressing’ poll in article
ia.acs.org.au · 2023

Microsoft’s generative artificial intelligence tool inserted a “deeply concerning” poll into a Guardian news story asking readers to speculate on the cause of a woman’s death.

Tech giant Microsoft has a licence with The Guardian to publish …

The Guardian accuses Microsoft of damaging its reputation with offensive AI-generated poll
searchengineland.com · 2023

The Guardian has accused Microsoft of damaging its brand by adding an offensive AI-generated poll to one of its articles.

In a story reporting on the death of 21-year-old Lilie James, whose body was found with serious head injuries in Austr…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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