Google has been forced to respond after its search engine accidentally claimed that OpenAI boss Sam Altman had died.
Users who searched the CEO’s name on August 12 were met with a result that said that he had died that same day. This was displayed at the top of search results, which automatically shows biographical information about public figures, such as date of birth, height, and, if applicable, date of death.
This quickly went viral on social media, sparking plenty of confusion since there had been no official announcements.
Google blames ‘vandalism’ of public information sources #
But when it quickly became clear that the news wasn’t true and Altman was very much alive, Google released a response to clarify the situation and assure users that this wasn’t a deliberate change.
“Thanks for flagging – this is no longer appearing, and was not a manual change by Google,” they said in a reply on X. “When people vandalize public info sources, this can affect the information that appears in Search.”
Although Google didn’t specifically mention which information sources were targeted, it is likely they mean Wikipedia.
As spotted by SBS News, Altman’s page on the site had been edited multiple times with false claims, including one that said he had been assassinated. So, it appears Google collected these fake details when Altman’s name was searched.
After the false rumors of his death had spread across social media, Wikipedia reportedly restricted editing of the page so that only registered users could make revisions.
This comes just a couple of months after a radio station was forced to apologize for accidentally announcing the death of King Charles.