Microsoft’s AI travel writer advises foodies visiting Canada to fill up at Ottawa’s food bank

Microsoft Corp. has bet big in artificial intelligence, but it may have to spend a little more on human editors to expunge embarrassing and insulting generative AI goofs.

Today a user on X, formerly Twitter — and most likely a lot more people — spotted a Microsoft Travel story on its Microsoft Network website titled “Headed to Ottawa: Here’s what you shouldn’t miss!” The story talked about the city’s museums and places to shop, and for places to eat out, it suggested that people visit the Ottawa Food Bank.

“The organization has been collecting, purchasing, producing, and delivering food to needy people and families in the Ottawa area since 1984,” the AI-written guide said. “We observe how hunger impacts men, women, and children on a daily basis and how it may be a barrier to achievement.”

Recent reports suggest 60% more Canadians are relying on food banks these days. The Ottawa Food Bank’s website says it has experienced an 85% increase in Food Bank users since 2019, so while mentioning the plight of hungry Canadians was not in itself a bad thing, putting that information in a travel guide was.

The Microsoft guide seemed to think the food bank was a contender for a Michelin Star. In what is perhaps the biggest and most embarrassing AI goof yet, Microsoft advised vacationers to “Consider going into it on an empty stomach.” This sounded like a joke from a comedian who enthralls his fans with highly offensive humor.

It’s worth noting that Microsoft laid off MSN journalists and editors in 2020 in a push to replace them with AI, but as BuzzFeed recently showed us, the time is not yet ripe to let AI loose on travel articles. It’s bland, repetitive and cliched, and as Microsoft just proved, it can’t tell the difference between a place where the privileged eat and a place where people go when they’ve hit rock bottom. Generative AI is still very flawed, but that’s nothing an editor couldn’t sort out in a few minutes.

Microsoft took the article down and has promised to look into the matter, while Samantha Koziara, communications manager at the Ottawa Food Bank, told The Verge that the article is not the “type of messaging or ‘story’ we would ever put out.” She added, “The ‘empty stomach’ line is clearly insensitive and didn’t pass by a (human) editor.”

The Ottawa Food Bank is still taking donations. Perhaps Microsoft should help out.

Photo: Aaron Ducett/Unsplash