Google AI Error Prompts Parents to Use Fecal Matter in Child Training Exercise
September 9, 2024
Google's AI Overview feature mistakenly advised parents to use human feces in a potty training exercise, misinterpreting a method that uses shaving cream or peanut butter as a substitute. This incident is another example of an AI failure in grasping contextual nuances that can lead to potentially harmful, and in this case unsanitary, recommendations. Google has acknowledged the error.
- Alleged deployer
- google, ai-overview
- Alleged developer
- Alleged harmed parties
- parents, google-users, google
Source
Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/791
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.