Decades-Long Consequences Resulting from Error in Pepsi's Number Generation System: A Case Study on AI Incident Harm Prevention
May 25, 1992
The malfunction of Pepsi's number generation system used for its Number Fever promotion in the Philippines led to a single number being held by thousands, causing chaos and devastation. This incident highlights the importance of safe and secure AI, and responsible AI governance. Ready to help shape trusted AI? JOIN US This AI incident maps to the Govern function in HISPI Project Cerebellum Trusted AI Model (TAIM).
- Alleged deployer
- pepsi
- Alleged developer
- d.g.-consultores
- Alleged harmed parties
- filipinos
Source
Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/379
Data source
Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).
When citing the database as a whole, please use:
McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.
Pre-print on arXiv · Database snapshots & citation guide
We use weekly snapshots of the AIID for stable reference. For the official suggested citation of a specific incident, use the “Cite this incident” link on each incident page.