Newspaper slams Microsoft for ‘significant reputational damage’ by AI-generated poll

Microsoft has launched an investigation after an AI-generated poll on a news article about a woman’s death drew backlash. The poll, which ran within Microsoft’s news aggregator platform Microsoft Start, asked readers about the reasons behind the woman’s death, which many found insensitive. The Guardian Media Group accused Microsoft of causing “significant reputational damage” and called on the tech giant to take public responsibility for the poll. Microsoft stated that such a poll should not have appeared alongside the article and that it is taking steps to prevent similar errors in the future. The Guardian’s CEO, Anna Bateson, urged Microsoft to ensure that experimental AI technologies are not applied to its licensed journalism without explicit approval.