AI incident ·
Google Android Earthquake Alerts System Reportedly Underestimated Kahramanmaraş Earthquake and Failed to Send Urgent Warnings to Millions
In brief
An AI system built by Google and Earthquake Early Warning System Developers and deployed by Google and Earthquake Early Warning System Deployers allegedly harmed Public Safety, People Exposed To Earthquake Hazards and 5 others.
- Risk domain
- Not classified
- Occurred
- Coverage
- 6 reports
What happened
During the February 6, 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake sequence, Google's Android Earthquake Alerts system reportedly estimated the initial magnitude-7.8 earthquake at only magnitude 4.5–4.9. Just 469 users reportedly received its highest-level "Take Action" warning, while approximately 500,000 received lower-level notices; researchers later estimated that roughly 10 million people could have received urgent warnings providing up to 35 seconds to seek safety.
Laws that address this harm
No recorded instrument yet addresses this use case where it happened. See the open queue.
Matched from the record's risk domain and country to the instruments recorded here. A reviewer can correct the match in the repository (data/external/incident_overrides.yaml).
News reports (6)
Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.
Who was involved
- Alleged deployer
- Google, Earthquake Early Warning System Deployers
- Alleged developer
- Google, Earthquake Early Warning System Developers
- Alleged harmed party
- Public Safety, People Exposed To Earthquake Hazards, General Public Of Turkey, General Public, Android Users In Earthquake Affected Areas Of Turkey, Android Users In Earthquake Affected Areas, Android Users
Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)
- Risk domain
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- Risk subdomain
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- Causal entity
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- Intent
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- Timing
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- Harm level
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Source record: incident #1546 on the AI Incident Database · all 6 reports