AI can do a lot of work, more efficiently than humans. They cost a lot less, work a lot faster, and can work 24/7 without having any breaks.
Even before the hype of generative AIs, Microsoft knows the potential of the technology and because of that, has utilized it to many extent.
One of which, is by replacing some of its human staff at MSN.com and Microsoft Start with AI.
While there are still humans working as editors, these people weren't caught off guard when Microsoft's AI made disastrous publication.
This happened when Microsoft's news aggregation service published an AI-generated poll inside a publisher's aggregated page.
This isn't anything new.
The thing is, the AI created a poll that asked readers to speculate on the cause of the woman.
The AI distastefully inserted the poll next to the publisher's name, as if it's making fun of both the woman's demise, and the publisher.
The aggregated page in question, is from Guardian, which covers a story about the death of Lilie James, a 21-year-old water polo coach who was found dead with serious head injuries at a school in Sydney, Australia.
And the poll here, created by an AI, asked:
"What do you think is the reason behind the woman's death?"
Readers were then asked to choose from three options: "murder," "accident," or "suicide."
Readers reacted angrily to the poll, and following the criticisms, the human staff behind MSN.com finally took notice and took the poll down.
In response to this distasteful poll, chief executive of the Guardian Media Group, Anna Bateson, stated her concerns about the AI-generated poll in a letter to Microsoft's President, Brad Smith.
She said the incident was distressing for Lilie James's family.
This is clearly an inappropriate use of genAI [generative AI] by Microsoft on a potentially distressing public interest story, originally written and published by Guardian journalists," she wrote.
She then added that it had demonstrated "the important role that a strong copyright framework plays in enabling publishers to be able to negotiate the terms on which our journalism is used."
In response, Microsoft confirmed the mistake.
"We have deactivated Microsoft-generated polls for all news articles and we are investigating the cause of the inappropriate content. A poll should not have appeared alongside an article of this nature, and we are taking steps to help prevent this kind of error from reoccurring in the future."
Microsoft has been one of those companies that is utilizing AI to its fullest capacity, whenever possible.
As a matter of fact, Microsoft has also invested billions of dollars into OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and that it's also utilizing generative AI technology to improve many parts of its existing products.
AI helps in automation, and Microsoft knows that very well.
But apparently, Microsoft's reliance on the technology over its human employees led to a disaster.
Previously, the AI also falsely claimed that U.S. President Joe Biden fell asleep during a moment of silence for victims of the Maui wildfire, and that San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston resigned after criticism from Elon Musk.
The AI's apparent distasteful poll is showing that a lack of oversight can be catastrophic, and can be damaging to Microsoft's relationship with established publications.
"Not only is this sort of application potentially distressing for the family of the individual who is the subject of the story, it is also deeply damaging to the Guardian's hard-won reputation for trusted, sensitive journalism, and to the reputation of the individual journalists who wrote the original story," Anna Bateson wrote.