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The Guardian is now on Microsoft’s neck as a result of an error from their Insight from AI poll feature. This AI-generated poll attached itself to the sad news on The Guardian’s website of a woman’s death. Users were given various options to pick from concerning the woman’s death, which is beyond inappropriate.
After going through the poll, users were not impressed by this and blamed its existence on the writer. Despite readers pointing fingers at the article’s writers, the poll wasn’t entirely their fault but on the side of Microsoft. Some readers took to the comment section of the poll to express their disgust with the poll and how insensitive the polls were.
Now The Guardian is accusing Microsoft of damaging its reputation with the Insight from AI feature. The news provider went ahead to remove the poll from their page, but it had already done some damage to the brand’s reputation. Following this removal, Guardian Media Group’s chief executive wrote to Microsoft about this concerning poll.
A recent Guardian post leads to the deactivation of Microsoft’s Insight from AI feature
Following The Guardian’s post about the death of a woman a few days ago was an AI-generated poll. This poll popped up just beside the article on the Microsoft web browser and it threw a rather concerning question at users. The poll asked, “What do you think is the reason behind the woman’s death?”
It also gave users a total of three options to pick between murder, accident, and suicide. Users were quick to judge that the writer of the article set this poll up. However, it was a product of Microsoft’s Insight from AI feature.
From the AI poll, it clearly got an idea of the article but failed to show sympathy for the situation. In a rather disheartening way, the Insight from AI feature sorts out users’ ideas on the cause of the woman’s death. The Guardian didn’t take the allegations from its readers on them playing a role in the poll lightly.
Immediately, the news provider was able to remove the poll, but this was after the damage. Not stopping there, they also sent a letter to Microsoft about the AI-generated poll expressing their dissatisfaction with it. Microsoft’s moderation of AI-generated content is now under question with this shocking turn of events.
Following complaints from the Guardian, Microsoft has removed AI-generated polls for all news on their search platform. According to the company, the poll wasn’t meant to appear alongside that article from The Guardian. This is just one of the reasons why most people don’t trust the use of AI in various aspects of life.