Microsoft calls deceased NBA player ‘useless’ in AI-written obituary

Microsoft has been criticised after publishing an AI-generated obituary for NBA star Brandon Hunter.

The previous Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic participant handed away all of the sudden this week, aged 42, after collapsing throughout a sizzling yoga class in Orlando, Fla.

Shortly after his passing, followers had been shocked to see the daddy of three described as “ineffective” in an obituary printed on MSN.

The headline learn:

• “Brandon Hunter ineffective at 42.”

Why we care. MSN laid off two dozen editorial workers a couple of years in the past with plans to exchange the writers with generative AI, the Guardian reported. This case highlights the significance of not relying solely on AI for producing content material as a consequence of factual inaccuracies and problematic errors, and the necessity to make sure that all work produced by AI is supervised by people. Failure to take action may hurt your model’s status in addition to negatively impacting your search rankings.

Incomprehensible. Whereas the MSN headline was offensive, the remainder of the article was incoherent. It learn:

• “Former NBA participant, Brandon Hunter, who beforehand carried out for the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic, has handed away on the age of 42, as launched by Ohio male’s basketball coach Jeff Boals on Tuesday.”
• “Hunter, initially a extraordinarily regarded highschool basketball participant in Cincinnati, achieved important success as a forward for the Bobcats.”

Reputational injury. Regardless of swiftly eradicating the article from the MSN web site, Microsoft was criticized on social media for publishing the offensive content material:

What Microsoft is saying. A Microsoft spokesperson advised Search Engine Land:

• “The accuracy of the content material we publish from our companions is necessary to us, and we proceed to boost our techniques to determine and stop inaccurate info from showing on our channels. The story in query has been eliminated.”

Nevertheless, the corporate is but to formally apologize.

Dig deeper. Futurism broke the information in Microsoft Publishes Garbled AI Article Calling Tragically Deceased NBA Player “Useless”.

Different manufacturers stumbles with AI. We’ve beforehand reported on quite a lot of manufacturers which have printed articles with errors, all of which had been missing in E-E-A-T in numerous methods:

• Men’s Journal printed an AI-generated article, What All Males Ought to Know About Low Testosterone, that contained dangerous recommendation and knowledge.
• BuzzFeed printed 44 horrible “AI-assisted” articles.
• Gizmodo printed an article on “Star Wars” with quite a few factual errors.
• Red Ventures-owned properties (together with CNET, BankRate and CreditCards.com) have additionally leaned closely into AI-generated content material.

As a reminder, Google doesn’t care who – or what – writes your content, so long as that content material is useful and never created to control search outcomes.