UK police blame Microsoft Copilot for intelligence mistake
The Verge • • general
Key Points:
- The chief constable of West Midlands Police admitted that Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant fabricated a nonexistent football match between West Ham and Maccabi Tel Aviv in an intelligence report.
- This erroneous information led to Israeli football fans being banned from a Europa League match against Aston Villa in November last year due to perceived safety risks.
- The police force included the AI-generated error in the report without fact-checking, despite warnings that Copilot may produce mistakes or hallucinate information.
- Previously, the chief constable had denied AI involvement in the report, attributing the error to social media scraping instead.
- Microsoft has not yet responded to requests for comment regarding why Copilot created the fictitious match.
