Google apologizes after push notification includes racial slur in BAFTA awards coverage

Google sent an AI-generated push alert that included a racial slur

Google sent out an AI-generated news alert that included the N-word, . The push notification featured a link to a story by The Hollywood Reporter regarding an incident at the recent BAFTA Film Awards. The word appeared in the notification under the link. This was first spotted by , who accompanied a screengrab with a caption reading "what an interesting Black History Month this has turned out to be." Google has since apologized and said that it has "removed the offensive notification" and is "working to prevent this from happening again." This story follows the aforementioned BAFTA incident, in which an audience member with Tourette syndrome shouted the N-word when Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo took to the stage to present an award. Tourette syndrome activist John Davidson, who made the comment, "deeply mortified if anyone considers my involuntary tics to be intention or to carry any meaning." The incident has sparked outrage and a renewed discussion on the realities of living with vocal tics. AI makes lots of high-profile errors and this isn't the first time it has ruined a news alert. Apple actually when the tool made a , including wrongly telling readers that the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Luigi Mangione, had shot himself.

Google Apologizes for Sending the Worst Push Notification You Can Possibly Imagine

Disaster tends to strike when you let automated systems distribute news, especially on sensitive topics. The latest case in point: how Google's automated news alerts accidentally ended up throwing more fuel onto an already hurtful racial slur controversy that unfolded at the BAFTA awards this weekend. As Deadline reported, Google pushed out a notification linking to an article with the headline, "How the Tourette's Fallout Unfolded at the BAFTA Film Award." The problem was the message appended to the notification, which prompted readers to "see more on n****rs." The blunder became viral after Instagram influencer Danny Price posted a screenshot of the alert to his followers, calling it "absolutely f**ked." "What an interesting Black History month this has turned out to be," Price wrote. Google apologized for the slur after the incident gained news coverage. "We're very sorry for this mistake. We've removed the offensive notification and are working to prevent this from happening again," a spokesperson told media outlets. Understandably, the error prompted fiery discussions online about the irresponsibility of allowing AI systems to report and repackage the news. But Google claims that no AI was involved in the blunder. In a clarification provided by Deadline after it originally reported the notification was AI-generated, Google told the paper that its systems "recognized a euphemism for an offensive term on several web pages, and accidentally applied the offensive term to the notification text." "This system error did not involve AI," the company emphasized. "Our safety filters did not properly trigger, which is what caused this." Nonetheless, the criticisms of AI butting its way into journalism aren't unwarranted. When Apple launched an AI feature that summarized headlines in 2024, it falsely told users that Luigi Manione had shot himself, and other lies, leading to the BBC filing a formal complaint against the tech giant after the tool repeatedly butchered its stories. Last December, the Washington Post deployed an AI-generated feature for creating personalized podcasts that summarized its stories, which immediately invented and misattributed quotes, among other mistakes. Google, whose non-chatbot models are notorious for producing outrageous hallucinations, has itself been guilty of similar blunders, too. Last month, its Google Discover feed was caught showing users sensationalized AI-generated headlines that replaced the publication's original headline, The Verge found.