Description: Microsoft Copilot, when asked medical questions, was reportedly found to provide accurate information only 54% of the time, according to European researchers (citation provided in editor's notes). Analysis by the researchers reported that 42% of Copilot's responses could cause moderate to severe harm, with 22% of responses posing a risk of death or severe injury.
Editor Notes: Citation for the research paper: Andrikyan, Wahram, Sophie Marie Sametinger, Frithjof Kosfeld, Lea Jung-Poppe, Martin F. Fromm, Renke Maas, and Hagen F. Nicolaus. "Artificial Intelligence-Powered Chatbots in Search Engines: A Cross-Sectional Study on the Quality and Risks of Drug Information for Patients." BMJ Quality & Safety, published online October 1, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2024-017476. Incident date is April 25, 2024 to match the date of submission of the research paper. The paper was accepted on August 22, 2024 and officially published October 1, 2024.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: Microsoft developed an AI system deployed by Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft, which harmed People seeking medical advice , Microsoft Copilot users and General public.
Incident Stats
Incident ID
838
Report Count
1
Incident Date
2024-04-25
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
windowscentral.com · 2024
- View the original report at its source
- View the report at the Internet Archive
- Researchers based in Germany and Belgium recently asked Microsoft Copilot a range of commonly asked medical questions.
- Analysing the results, the research suggests that Microsoft Copilot only offered scientifically-accurate information 54%…
Variants
A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.
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