England: Exclusion of football fans after risk analysis with AI hallucination
The exclusion of Israeli fans from a football match in England has escalated into a scandal: the risk analysis contained an AI hallucination.
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Following the controversial exclusion of fans of the Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv from a “Europa League” match against Aston Villa in England, the responsible police chief has now admitted that the decision was significantly influenced by an AI hallucination. According to him, a risk analysis created with the help of Microsoft's Copilot for Birmingham City Council referred to a previous match of Maccabi against West Ham United, which never happened.
Previously, the police chief had denied the use of AI in two appearances before Parliament, stating that the incorrect reference was the result of a faulty Google search or social media research. Only now has he become aware that the Microsoft AI produced the error. He sincerely apologizes for this. The matter has long since developed into a full-blown scandal in Great Britain and will be discussed in Parliament again on Wednesday.
Many More Problems
The match Aston Villa against Maccabi Tel Aviv was played on November 6th. Fans from Israel were not allowed into the stadium for security reasons. This had caused considerable criticism; Israel's Foreign Minister spoke of a “shameful decision.” Aston Villa itself had stated that the responsible West Midlands Police had expressed concerns about public safety in advance. The necessary security certificates had not been issued. The faulty risk analysis was not publicly known at the time; instead, the risk of anti-Israel protests in the city was pointed out.
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After it became known that the analysis referred to a match that never took place, the police chief was questioned twice in the British Parliament. Both times he rejected the obvious assumption that an “AI hallucination” was responsible. Before his third appearance, he had to revise this; here he first referred to Microsoft's Copilot. According to The Guardian, the reference to the match that never took place is only part of the problem; other criticisms are also being leveled against the police authority in this context. However, the admission once again highlights the consequences that the uncritical use of AI-generated content can have and how widespread it already is.
The risk analysis itself is not yet public, reports the BBC. However, the news channel itself quotes a Member of Parliament who read out the questionable passage back in early December. It states that the match against West Ham on November 9, 2023, was the Israeli club's last match in Great Britain to date. The MP then stated that he would expect internal inquiries to be made after such a report about how the “hooligans” had behaved at the time. No one could answer that, “because the match didn't happen.” Such research was therefore obviously not carried out. So far, however, there is no indication that the hallucinated reference was the cause of the cancellation.
(mho)
