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Aug 12, 2026 — 4:19 PM ET
- Google Search was mistakenly telling users that Sam Altman had passed away.
- It appears that a vandalized Wikipedia page about Altman falsely declared that the CEO died on August 12, 2026.
- The page has since been fixed and a date of death is no longer appearing in Search.
Everyone makes mistakes, right? However, some mistakes are more prominent than others, such as when Google Search missteps. That happens to be the case today, as the search engine mistakenly informed users of surprising, false news about Sam Altman.
Earlier today, Google Search users noticed something strange when looking up the OpenAI CEO. As usual, the results included the executive’s name, image, and a brief overview taken from Wikipedia. However, along with those details was a date of death. The card read that Altman had passed away on August 12, 2026.
Unsurprisingly, this left many confused, especially as no major outlet had reported the news. Sure enough, it turned out to be a mistake that wasn’t entirely Google’s fault. Rather, it appears that a vandalized Wikipedia page about Altman is to blame. Altman’s Wikipedia page was altered to declare the CEO as dead.
Thanks for flagging – this is no longer appearing, and was not a manual change by Google. When people vandalize public info sources, this can affect the information that appears in Search.[pic.twitter.com/i5pBqTCjDS]— News from Google (@NewsFromGoogle)[August 12, 2026]
As you may or may not know, Google’s automated systems scrape information from sources, like Wikipedia, to fill out its search summaries. It appears that the latest scraping picked up on this false edit and displayed the date of death next to Altman’s summary.
It didn’t take long for Google to correct the error. In a social post, the company thanked users for flagging the issue. It appears that the Wikipedia page is now fixed, and Google confirms that the date of death is no longer appearing next to the CEO’s name.
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