"Consider going into it on an empty stomach," said a Microsoft Travel article written using "algorithmic techniques." [...] Company says article produced by 'a combination of algorithmic techniques with human review'.
Curated from cbc.ca · 18 August 2023 →
Microsoft Start published a guide to Ottawa in August 2023 listing fifteen places a visitor should not miss. Third on the list was the Ottawa Food Bank, described as a beautiful attraction, with the advice above. The food bank's chief executive said she was astonished to read it. Microsoft removed the article and said it had been produced by algorithmic techniques with human review rather than by a language model, and that it was working to stop this kind of content being posted. That correction is worth keeping: the interest here is not which system wrote it but that a piece of copy carrying Microsoft's name reached the public without anybody who knew what a food bank is having read it.
