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Incident 770: Microsoft Copilot Falsely Accuses Journalist Martin Bernklau of Crimes

Description: Microsoft's Copilot is reported to have falsely accused veteran court reporter Martin Bernklau of committing serious crimes, including child abuse and fraud. The tool is described as having generated defamatory content that not only accused Bernklau of multiple crimes he covered as a journalist but also provided his personal contact details. Attempts by Microsoft to remove the false entries were only temporarily successful, as the defamatory information reportedly reappeared.

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Entities

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Alleged: Microsoft developed an AI system deployed by Microsoft and Microsoft Copilot, which harmed Martin Bernklau.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
770
Report Count
3
Incident Date
2024-08-16
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
 

3.1. False or misleading information

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. Misinformation

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

Incident Occurrence+1
Microsoft's Copilot falsely accuses court reporter of crimes he covered
Microsoft Bing Copilot accuses reporter of crimes he covered
Microsoft's Copilot falsely accuses court reporter of crimes he covered

Microsoft's Copilot falsely accuses court reporter of crimes he covered

the-decoder.com

Copilot macht aus einem Gerichtsreporter einen Kinderschänder

Copilot macht aus einem Gerichtsreporter einen Kinderschänder

heise.de

Microsoft Bing Copilot accuses reporter of crimes he covered

Microsoft Bing Copilot accuses reporter of crimes he covered

theregister.com

Microsoft's Copilot falsely accuses court reporter of crimes he covered
the-decoder.com · 2024

Language models generate text based on statistical probabilities. This led to serious false accusations against a veteran court reporter by Microsoft's Copilot.

German journalist Martin Bernklau typed his name and location into Microsoft's …

Copilot macht aus einem Gerichtsreporter einen Kinderschänder
heise.de · 2024

Microsofts Copilot hat einige Antworten parat, wenn man nach Martin Bernklau fragt. Allerdings sind die Antworten nicht korrekt. Dort heißt es nämlich, Bernklau sei ein Kinderschänder, ein Ausbrecher aus der Psychiatrie und ein Witwenbetrüg…

Microsoft Bing Copilot accuses reporter of crimes he covered
theregister.com · 2024

Microsoft Bing Copilot has falsely described a German journalist as a child molester, an escapee from a psychiatric institution, and a fraudster who preys on widows.

Martin Bernklau, who has served for years as a court reporter in the area …

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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