Google apologized after sending out a BAFTA news alert including the n-word

We are in the final days of Black History Month, and it has been nonstop racist nonsense from everyone yet again. It’s like people are saving up their racist sh-t to go wild during the month of February now. On Sunday, John Davidson (a man with Tourette’s) screamed the n-word several times at Michael B. Jordan, Delroy Lindo and Hannah Beachler during the BAFTAs. The BBC and E! aired the slur on their hours-delayed broadcasts. Well, that was not the only racist editing failure. As it turns out, Google sent out a news alert about the BAFTA situation which included the n-word. Google said the hard R.

Google has apologized after a computer-generated news alert about the BAFTA Film Awards racial slur incident included the N-word.

The tech giant pushed out a notification linking to a The Hollywood Reporter article, which had the headline: “How the Tourette’s Fallout Unfolded at the BAFTA Film Awards.” The alert then invited readers to “see more on” and then included the N-word.

The notification was spotted and condemned by Instagram user Danny Price, who said it was “absolutely f****d.” He added: “What an interesting Black History month this has turned out to be.” (Deadline is not embedding Price’s post because it contains a screenshot of the offending Google alert).

A Google spokesperson told Deadline: “We’re very sorry for this mistake. We’ve removed the offensive notification and are working to prevent this from happening again.”

The notification follows John Davidson, a Tourette’s campaigner who was sat in the BAFTA Awards audience Sunday, involuntarily shouting the N-word when Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo took to the Royal Festival Hall stage to present the award for Best Visual Effects.

Google is not the first tech giant to experience issues with news alerts. Apple scrapped AI alerts last year after a series of high-profile errors, including wrongly telling readers that Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, had shot himself.

Clarification: The original version of this story stated that the Google news alert was AI-generated. Google has since made clear that, although the inclusion of the N-word was a tech error, it was not AI-generated. Google said its systems “recognised a euphemism for an offensive term on several web pages, and accidentally applied the offensive term to the notification text.” It added: “This system error did not involve AI. Our safety filters did not properly trigger, which is what caused this.“

[From Deadline]

Deadline added that clarification in there after it was widely reported that Google’s AI system added the n-word. I would be willing to bet that, despite Google’s clarification to the contrary, this was partially or completely AI-related. That doesn’t change the lack of corporate responsibility though, and this apology is insufficient. I can’t believe that this happened. Deadline didn’t show the Google alert but they linked to it, so that’s what I’m going to do as well – you can see the very real Google situation here on this tweet.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, screencap courtesy of ABC.

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14 Responses to “Google apologized after sending out a BAFTA news alert including the n-word”

  1. M Moo says:

    So evidently the guy who uttered the slur has questioned why they sat him near a microphone and also they had told him they would censor it which they didnt. It almost seems a,purposeful marketing device for the movie.

  2. Lorelei says:

    JFC, the screenshot in that tweet! Even after reading the post, I was not prepared to see that. How jarring.

    This was a sad situation that the media, starting with the BBC, has turned into an absolute farcical tragedy for everyone involved. Just a total disgrace.

  3. wow says:

    Why not use BAFTA executives in the jpeg why the actor ?

  4. Jais says:

    F*ck AI. This is a mess.

  5. ChillinginDC says:

    Yeah…people on BlueSky started sharing and it’s up there with that mess with the Navy a few years ago.

  6. Ciotog says:

    I guess the AI has Tourette’s too?

  7. Jane says:

    It was 100% AI.

    Which could have easily been programmed to not make such an error.

  8. BeanieBean says:

    Oh, wow. Appalling. I don’t get these alerts so I had no idea. I’m just gobsmacked at the moment.

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