UK police blame Microsoft Copilot for intelligence mistake (www.theverge.com)

West Midlands Police have acknowledged that a report generated by Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant erroneously included a fictional football match between West Ham and Maccabi Tel Aviv, leading to the banning of Maccabi's fans from a subsequent match against Aston Villa. The chief constable, Craig Guildford, admitted this mistake in a letter to the Home Affairs Committee, revealing that the police force included the incorrect information without proper fact-checking. Initially, Guildford had denied the use of AI in preparing the report, attributing the error to “social media scraping.” This incident highlights significant concerns regarding the reliability of AI-generated content, particularly in high-stakes scenarios such as public safety and event management. While Microsoft cautions users that Copilot "may make mistakes," this specific case underlines the critical need for rigorous verification processes when using AI for intelligence reports. The implications extend beyond this incident, shedding light on the broader challenge of combatting AI hallucinations and ensuring that generative models are accurately vetted before influencing real-world decisions.