Microsoft’s AI Mistakenly Recommends Ottawa Food Bank as Tourist Spot

Ottawa food bank

Microsoft recently faced criticism for an AI-generated travel article about the nation’s capital, which controversially suggested tourists visit the Ottawa Food Bank.

The recommendation, which ranked third on the list, was placed above attending an Ottawa Senators hockey game and just below visiting the National War Memorial. Thank you, AI overlords. Following the publication of the article, Microsoft swiftly quickly removed it after users spotted it, such as Paris Marx.

Jeff Jones, a senior director at Microsoft, stated to The Verge, “This article has been removed and we are investigating how it made it through our review process.” The article’s removal was further confirmed when attempts to access it resulted in a “page no longer exists” message.

The Ottawa Food Bank, which recently relocated due to an 85% surge in demand since 2019, was taken aback by the recommendation. Samantha Koziara, the food bank’s communications manager, expressed her concerns to The Verge, emphasizing the insensitivity of the AI’s description and the importance of human oversight in content creation.

You can see a full image of the Ottawa Food Bank and the MSN story here at imgur.

This incident underscores the challenges faced by companies like Microsoft, which in 2020, replaced journalists at Microsoft News and MSN with artificial intelligence. It looks like our Skynet AI overlords aren’t perfect just yet.

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It's Me
It's Me
2 years ago

The AI was basing the recommendations for venues on how busy they are or how much discussion there is about it from locals. With the record number of visitors the foodbanks are seeing, it would make perfect sense for AI to think it was a hotspot.

Just waiting for one of them to publicly thank Trudeau for the uptick.

Dany Quirion
Dany Quirion
Reply to  It's Me
2 years ago

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to bring up Trudeau. Typical

It's Me
It's Me
Reply to  Dany Quirion
2 years ago

Were you wondering that as you were reading the first post that mentioned Trudeau? Interesting.

What’s wrong with mentioning Trudeau? It was predicted that he’d raise taxes, wreck the economy and increase poverty. When all of that actually happens, it’s inappropriate to recall those predictions?

Typical.

Dany Quirion
Dany Quirion
Reply to  It's Me
2 years ago

The exact same is happening worldwide, is that Trudeau fault too?

It's Me
It's Me
Reply to  It's Me
2 years ago

Well, no Dany, he has little influence in the rest of the world. Certainly, countries with similar leftist policies will see similar consequences.

Whataboutism isn’t a very good defence.

It was predicted. It happened. We all knew it would, except the very densest of Trudeau groupies. Or, maybe they knew too but didn’t care.

Le Tuxedo
Le Tuxedo
Reply to  It's Me
2 years ago

Very typical of you to blame the left when there is plenty of examples of the right not doing better. It has been proven many times in the history. Right or left doesn’t matter when the population suffer. The only thing all politicians should be thinking about is the well-being of their population. Not being re-elected or party lines.

It's Me
It's Me
Reply to  Le Tuxedo
2 years ago

Massive social spending, expansion of the welfare state, huge tax increases. These are all inflationary and cause and worsen the economic problems we are seeing now. While some “right wing” might do the same, they are hallmarks of the left. And in the midst of the damage he’s done, he’s doubling down on all of it and making it even worse.

Again, if we all knew he would do exactly this, why pretend and act surprised when the outcome is exactly what’s was predicted?

Le Tuxedo
Le Tuxedo
Reply to  It's Me
2 years ago

And Covid was caused by Trudeau. Why not?

It's Me
It's Me
Reply to  Le Tuxedo
2 years ago

No, but he dictated the response. And the spending. And more spending. And more spending. And then the taxes.

Did you think they were doing all of that without him knowing?

Le Tuxedo
Le Tuxedo
Reply to  It's Me
2 years ago

Just to confirm, did Ford dictated anything about Covid?

It's Me
It's Me
Reply to  Le Tuxedo
2 years ago

Sure did. Ford is another weak man that made lots of foolish mistakes. More whataboutism…shockingly surprised.

Doesn’t excuse the intentional damage Trudeau has done. Can’t keep using covid as an excuse for his failures forever. He was a dangerously incompetent ideologue long before covid and has continued to be, long after.

Léon
Léon
Reply to  It's Me
2 years ago

Interesting how ‘massive social spending and expansion of the welfare state‘ are ‘increasing poverty’. Must be that those massive social spendings and increased welfare are going to the rich, since the poor are not getting it while their numbers increase in the process.

It's Me
It's Me
Reply to  Léon
2 years ago

Is it really that “interesting”? Social spending _never_ creates wealth. It can never create wealth. It can create more poverty and it will create dependency.

What it has done is to drive inflation. Inflation drives poverty. Inflation means higher interest rates, driving even more poverty. Meanwhile, as interest rates rose, he announced even more spending, driving inflation even more. And then there’s his taxes on top.

Ever visited a foodbank, even to volunteer? Recent change? Waaaaay more “working poor”. They’re still employed. Just can’t afford life now. _Everything_ is more expensive. Too expensive.

The fact that it’s “interesting” is how this clown keeps getting elected.

Léon
Léon
Reply to  It's Me
2 years ago

Interesting refers to the thought process that can marry obvious contradictions. Everything is more expensive, no argument there. Is that the sole doing of the government? They have their part in responsibility for that. Also no argument there. Corporate greed also have something to do with it. That is conveniently omitted in your analysis.

That’s why I see that your argument is primarily driven by ideology and/or personal feelings toward one person (and/or his clique) and the objectivity takes the back seat.

The fact that working poor exist at all is a disgrace for the country and for those who rule but alarming numbers we are seeing now make my blood boil. Just to be clear.

It's Me
It's Me
Reply to  Léon
2 years ago

Well, of course there are multiple reasons. But, businesses are supposed to be greedy. That’s why they are businesses and not charities or government. Grocery stores, as an example, run on thin margins are their margins haven’t grown. Their costs have gone up, so their prices have gone up to maintain those margins. It’s unreasonable to expect them to start running on even thinner margins. We’d see a lot more grocery stores closing if they tried that. The result is their overall profits look bigger, but only because the same margin on a higher cost and higher price results in higher profits.

And while it would be great for them to raise everyone’s pay to a “living wage”, that’s also unrealistic. If every cashier and shelf stocker made $70k a year, we’d all be paying ever more, including them. It would make life even more unaffordable for everyone.

The point is, that this gov has done absolutely everything they can to make things worse in terms of cost of living. And they best they can come up with us to tax is even more so they can try to redistribute wealth through unsustainable handouts.

Failing to recognize the damage their policies have done and are doing is the ideological blind spot.

Léon
Léon
Reply to  It's Me
2 years ago

Businesses are not supposed to be greedy. They are supposed to make a profit, there is a difference. The same way there is a difference between charging fair price for your goods and services – where both customer and business are reasonably happy with the transaction, and the economy is chugging along nicely – and on the other hand, gauging people. You know the expression, sheep should be fleeced not skinned. You get the wool this year and the next year and so on. You can skin a ship just once if you are greedy and then your source of income is over. The corporate greed is what is destroying the economy and the living standard of people who work for living. It is filling the pockets of the few, the rich and powerful and their politician cronies but leaves the ordinary people to shoulder the burden of “controlling the inflation” and trying to heal the ailing economy.

The government does not manage economy, at least not in the capitalism, but they are responsible for not reigning in the corporate greed. This government, as pretty much any other, doesn’t do a thing about it because they know who they work for. Certainly not for the people who elected them.

Your argument that higher profits of the grocery chains are “just” because they are keeping the same margin on the higher prices is below the level of objectivity you’ve displayed here. Six cents of profit for a $2 egg is OK but if you start selling that egg for 3, 4, 5 dollars, keeping the same margin and extracting ¢15 of profit from the customer is not. You can still keep a profit of ¢6 and you would earn the same profit as before the price increase.

But this is not about just record grocery chains profits at the time of difficulty for ordinary Canadians, it is about record profits of corporations across the board and record bonuses and payouts for the wise CEOs who led them to the those profits by gauging the same ones who struggle every day.

And just a novel idea for your consideration: money for paying a living wage maybe doesn’t have to be extracted from the customers by raising the prices and making things even more unaffordable for everybody (save for the few fat ones at the top) – but maybe curbing one’s own greed and finding some money in the obscene profits and bonuses?

Like Loblaw’s net quarterly profits of $508 million, an increase of $121 million or 31.3%. So maybe keep the same profit as the previous quarter of $378 million, which is not chump change but put aside that extra $121M for pushing closer to the living wage of those who earn you that profit.

Stu Moir
Stu Moir
2 years ago

Put a /s at the end of the last sentence and you get a scathing diatribe about how emotionally draining it is to choose between having to go hungry or use a food bank. “Go there hungry. You may get an inkling about how some people (literally) live hand to mouth.

Léon
Léon
2 years ago

Who knows, maybe there is a whole segment of tourists who like to travel but cannot feed themselves /s

It's Me
It's Me
Reply to  Léon
2 years ago

Well, this is a whole genre of videos in India explaining how to eat for free when they come to Canada as students.

Léon
Léon
Reply to  It's Me
2 years ago

That’s both funny and sad

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