A major newspaper company criticizes Microsoft, saying ``Microsoft's AI-generated opinion poll has damaged its reputation as a journalist.''

The British daily newspaper The Guardian accused AI of generating and displaying an inappropriate and immoral poll next to an article published on Microsoft's news portal Microsoft Start. . Although the poll has been deleted at the time of writing, The Guardian is demanding public accountability from Microsoft.

Microsoft accused of damaging Guardian's reputation with AI-generated poll | The Guardian | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/oct/31/microsoft-accused-of-damaging-guardians-reputation-with-ai-generated-poll

Letter to Brad Smith from Anna Bateson 31/10/23 - letter_to_brad_smith_from_anna_bateson_31_10_23.pdf
(PDF file) https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24101210/letter_to_brad_smith_from_anna_bateson_31_10_23.pdf

The Guardian rips Microsoft for distasteful generative AI poll about death
https://www.axios.com/2023/10/31/guardian-microsoft-generative-ai-poll-death

The Guardian reported on October 31, 2023, that a 21-year-old woman was found dead from a head wound at a school in Sydney, Australia. This article was also published on Microsoft's news aggregation site 'Microsoft Start.'

This Microsoft Start article page featured an AI-generated opinion poll next to the article. This poll is automatically generated by Microsoft's AI and asks readers questions about the content of the article. And the poll displayed next to the article in question asked, ``Do you think the woman's cause of death was murder, accident, or suicide?''

This question received a lot of criticism from readers. Some of the comments criticized The Guardian reporters by name and expressed anger that they should be fired immediately. The poll has since been removed. However, comments critical of the poll were not deleted and remained visible for some time.

In a letter to Microsoft president Brad Smith, The Guardian's CEO Anna Bateson said: 'This poll is clearly the result of Microsoft's inappropriate use of generative AI. 'It not only has the potential to cause distress to the woman's family, but it also damages the reputation of the reporter who wrote the article, and some criticized him by name in the comment section of the article.'

Heytson also told Smith, ``Microsoft will not apply experimental AI technology to The Guardian's journalism without the news publisher's approval,'' and ``Microsoft will not add it next to trusted news brands like The Guardian.'' 'If a feature is generated by AI, it must always clearly indicate this to the user,' and demands that Microsoft be held publicly responsible for posting the AI-generated poll.

This isn't the first time Microsoft's AI-generated content has caused controversy. In September 2023, the obituary article for former NBA player Brandon Hunter, who passed away at the age of 42, received a lot of criticism with the title ``Brandon Hunter became useless at the age of 42.''

Additionally, in August, it was reported that Microsoft's AI generated an article called ``A list of must-see tourist spots in Ottawa, Canada,'' which introduced a food bank as a tourist attraction.

It is reported that Microsoft's AI introduced a food bank as a must-see tourist spot in Ottawa, Canada - GIGAZINE

A Microsoft spokesperson told The Guardian: 'We have disabled a survey created by Microsoft for all news articles and are investigating what caused the inappropriate content to be generated. The poll should not have been published and we are taking steps to prevent similar mistakes from happening in the future.'

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