Language models generate text based on statistical probabilities. This led to serious false accusations against a veteran court reporter by Microsoft's Copilot.

German journalist Martin Bernklau typed his name and location into Microsoft’s Copilot to see how his culture blog articles would be picked up by the chatbot, according to German public broadcaster SWR.

The answers shocked Bernklau. Copilot falsely claimed Bernklau had been charged with and convicted of child abuse and exploiting dependents. It also claimed that he had been involved in a dramatic escape from a psychiatric hospital and had exploited grieving women as an unethical mortician.

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Bernklau believes the false claims may stem from his decades of court reporting in Tübingen on abuse, violence, and fraud cases. The AI seems to have combined this online information and mistakenly cast the journalist as a perpetrator.

Microsoft attempted to remove the false entries but only succeeded temporarily. They reappeared after a few days, SWR reports. The company’s terms of service disclaim liability for generated responses.

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  • @Broken_Monitor
    22•19 days ago

    This copilot bullshit installed itself on my PC recently. I couldn’t uninstall it fast enough. I wonder how long before it magically reappears. Ugh, just go away with this shit

    • @[email protected]English
      12•19 days ago

      I mean the reality is that this is just the path Microsoft is going down. Its not a conspiracy theory either. They spent a fuck ton of money on AI and they want their money back. So they’re going to use it until they determine it isnt making them any money. They know this is a long-term investment too, so it could take years for them to remove AI, if they ever do.

      If you don’t like this, now could be a good time to consider jumping off the Microsoft train. Now is a pretty good time to Check out Linux IMO. Valve is pumping lots of money into the desktop experience, and the entire ecosystem is thriving because of it. I bet most of the applications you use have open source alternatives that are pretty easy to install if you’re open to it.

      Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is a really simple way to play around in a Linux environment, and you can install it right inside windows. If you like what you see, check out distros like Fedora Workstation or Ubuntu. You can always install something else later if you want.

      • @[email protected]
        4•19 days ago

        Or until it starts costing a fuckton of money. I hope a lawsuit by this individual is the start of that

        • @[email protected]English
          1•19 days ago

          Nah probably not. They’ll hide behind that ToS and settle any claims out of court of through forced arbitration. Microsoft has an ungodly amount of legal power behind it and its very difficult to move against them legally. I’m positive they’ll be able to contain this.