--- title: "Microsoft Runs Ghoulish AI Poll Next to Article About a Dead Woman" description: "The Guardian wants answers after Microsoft ran a gross AI poll next to one of its articles about a woman found dead in Australia." date: "2023-11-02" modified: "2023-11-02" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/microsoft-ai-poll-guardian" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai" - "microsoft" - "msn" --- # Microsoft Runs Ghoulish AI Poll Next to Article About a Dead Woman ![The Guardian wants answers after Microsoft ran a gross AI poll next to one of its articles about a woman found dead in Australia.]() *UKRAINE - 2022/01/12: In this photo illustration, the Microsoft news (MSN) logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen and Microsoft logo in the background. (Photo Illustration by Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) \Image: SOPA Images/Getty Images\* How's AI in the media going? Well, Microsoft apparently ran a disgusting AI-generated poll next to a syndicated article about a woman who'd been found dead in Australia — and *The Guardian*, which published the original article in question, wants answers. As [*The Guardian* reports]() in its own recounting of the incident, the article that [Microsoft re-published on its MSN news portal]() focused on the death of a young 20-something woman in Sydney, whose body was found at the school where she worked as a water polo coach. Unsurprisingly, police are considering the case as a possible murder — but the classless poll still questioned whether readers thought the woman had died by suicide, murder, or accident. Beneath the question, a disclaimer that the poll was part of the company's "insights from AI" somehow made the tasteless poll even more egregious. ![]() *A screenshot of the offending poll in question. Image via Axios/screenshot.* In a letter sent to Microsoft president Brad Smith that the newspaper quoted, Guardian Media Group CEO Anna Bateson said the debacle was not only potentially upsetting to the family of the young woman, but that it also poses "significant reputational damage" to *The Guardian* and the journalists who wrote the article. "This is clearly an inappropriate use of \[generative AI\] by Microsoft on a potentially distressing public interest story, originally written and published by Guardian journalists," Bateson wrote in her letter to Smith. The CEO, per the [entire text of the letter provided to *The Verge*](), added that although Microsoft has a license to republish *The Guardian* on MSN, the publisher had previously asked the tech giant not to use its "experimental" AI alongside its licensed work without the company's approval. Bateson also demanded Microsoft explain how it plans to compensate its news partners when it uses their intellectual property "in the training and live deployment of AI technologies within your wider business ventures." Microsoft should, the CEO added, take "full responsibility" for the passé poll, which has since been removed from [Microsoft's syndication of the story](). In a statement provided to *Futurism*, a Microsoft spokesperson said that the company has deactivated its poll feature and is "investigating the cause of the inappropriate content." "A poll should not have appeared alongside an article of this nature," the spokesperson continued, "and we are taking steps to help prevent this kind of error from reoccurring in the future." Anyone who's kept up with *Futurism*'s AI reporting this year knows that [Microsoft's syndication service]() — which has had its own [AI plagiarism issues]() — is just one of many platforms dabbling in AI-generated content. From [*BuzzFeed*]() to [*CNET*](), disastrous [pivots to AI]() have made fools of numerous [media CEOs]() who placed losing bets early on the burgeoning chatbot technology — and in spite of all those bungles, we have yet to see a single *really* impressive deployment of AI in media. **More on the AI of it all:** [*LinkedIn Laying Off 700 as Microsoft Pivots to AI*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()