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The Guardian is demanding compensation from Microsoft after the tech giant inserted a "crass" AI-generated poll into one of its articles that asked readers to speculate on the cause of someone's death.
MSN, which has a licence to re-run some Guardian stories, published an article from Guardian Australia about a young woman who was found dead at a school in Sydney.
In the middle of the article it inserted an AI-generated poll that asked readers what they thought the cause of the woman's death was. They were given three options: murder, accident and suicide.
Anna Bateson, chief executive of Guardian Media Group, said the use of AI was "deeply concerning" and called for discussions with a top Microsoft executive.
In a letter to Brad Smith, vice chairman and president of Microsoft, she wrote: "Not only is this sort of application potentially distressing for the family of the individual who is the subject of the story, it is also deeply damaging to the Guardian's hard-won reputation for trusted, sensitive journalism, and to the reputation of the individual journalists who wrote the original story."
The AI-generated poll inserted by Microsoft asked readers to speculate about a woman's death
The poll was followed by a string of negative comments by readers, who were unaware that Microsoft had created the poll rather than the Guardian.
One reader branded it the "most pathetic, disgusting poll I've ever seen", while another called for the journalist who wrote the original story to be sacked.
Microsoft has since removed the poll, which one Guardian insider described as "crass", but has not taken down the comments criticising the newspaper.
The incident will fuel concerns about the use of AI in news publishing on the eve of Rishi Sunak's UK summit, which Mr Smith is due to attend on behalf of Microsoft.
Microsoft has licensing deals in place with a number of publishers, including the Daily Mail, Evening Standard and Independent, that see it pay for the use of their content.
However, publishers are currently pushing for new licensing deals that would cover the use of their intellectual property to train and deploy AI technology.
Ms Bateson said the Guardian had asked to hold talks on how Microsoft would compensate it for the use of articles in AI, but the company had failed to "substantively respond".
She wrote: "The significant reputational damage caused by this incident with an existing licensee of our IP, demonstrates the important role that a strong copyright framework plays in enabling publishers to be able to negotiate the terms on which our journalism is used."
The Guardian boss also asked for assurances from Microsoft that the company would not apply experimental technologies on or alongside its articles and that any use of AI was clearly labelled.
Microsoft has been contacted for comment.