Deny, deny, admit: UK police used Copilot AI “hallucination” when banning football fans
Ars Technica • • world
Key Points:
- West Midlands Police admitted that their controversial decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans from the UK involved hallucinated information generated by Microsoft Copilot, after weeks of denial.
- The ban stemmed from concerns about potential violence at a match in Birmingham, following a terror attack in Manchester and alleged violent behavior by Maccabi fans in Amsterdam, claims later disproved by Dutch authorities.
- A key error in the police report cited a non-existent West Ham vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv match, which was revealed to have originated from AI-generated misinformation rather than human research as initially claimed.
- Chief Constable Craig Guildford first denied AI use in intelligence gathering but later admitted to relying on Microsoft Copilot, leading to accusations of
