AI-generated obituary on MSN calls deceased NBA player 'useless'

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) has often been celebrated in various industries. However, there are some industries where AI's introduction has been rather dubious.

In perhaps the latest example of an AI faux pas, the MSN news portal this week ran an AI-generated obituary from an unknown publisher called Race Track commemorating former NBA player Brandon Hunter, who passed away unexpectedly on September 12.

However, instead of a respectful article on the former player, the headline read, "Brandon Hunter useless at 42."

An image of the original version of the syndicated copy run by MSN on Brandon Hunter's death.

If the headline wasn't shocking enough, the rest of the article was even more garbled, with it informing readers that Hunter "handed away" after achieving "vital success as a ahead for the Bobcats". The article further went on to say that Hunter had "performed in 67 video games".

Understandably, the purported obituary (which has since been taken down by MSN) was met with backlash on social media.

"AI should not be writing obituaries. Pay your damn writers MSN," wrote one user on X (formerly Twitter).

"... your AI written Brandon Hunter article is tactless and f*****. Any human being who read it would realize it’s f***** up, but I guess this is how lazy you guys are," wrote another.

"Brandon Hunter was not useless you evil, rotten ghouls," another charged.

Notably, this is not the first time that MSN has embarrassed itself, with the Microsoft-owned platform committing a similar faux pas last month, when it published yet another incoherent AI-generated travel guide on the Candia city of Ottawa that recommended tourists visit a food bank.

Interestingly, MSN had, back in 2020, fired the team of human journalists responsible for vetting AI-generated content on its platform and Futurism reported last year that as a result, the platform ended up syndicating sloppy content on dubious topics such as Bigfoot and mermaids.