AI incident ·
NewsBreak Reportedly Published AI-Assisted Articles Containing Purportedly False Local and Community-Service Information
In brief
An AI system built by Newsbreak and deployed by Newsbreak and News Organizations allegedly harmed Police Departments, People Seeking Food Assistance and 8 others.
- Risk domain
- Not classified
- Occurred
- Coverage
- 1 report
What happened
NewsBreak reportedly published AI-assisted local articles containing purportedly false information, including a fabricated Christmas shooting in Bridgeton, New Jersey, incorrect Food to Power distribution times that caused people to be turned away, and nonexistent Harvest912 foot-care clinics. NewsBreak said the errors originated in source material and removed the articles after complaints. The specific AI models and the extent to which they contributed to the inaccuracies were not identified.
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 (1)
Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.
Who was involved
- Alleged deployer
- Newsbreak, News Organizations
- Alleged developer
- Newsbreak
- Alleged harmed party
- Police Departments, People Seeking Food Assistance, People Experiencing Homelessness, News Consumers, Journalistic Integrity, Harvest912, Food To Power, Epistemic Integrity, Community Service Organizations, Bridgeton Police Department
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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- Sectors
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- Countries
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Source record: incident #1554 on the AI Incident Database · all 1 report