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OMG. AI hallucination in police intelligence report used to decide on Maccabi's game

98 replies

PerkingFaintly · 14/01/2026 12:16

It's like all the possible disasters rolled into one!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c394zlr8e12t
11:54
What did the report say about the West Ham match that didn't exist?
The intelligence report that referred to a non-existent match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and West Ham has not been published in full.
But it was referred to by Lord Mann during a Home Affairs Committee session on 1 December.
He said: "Early on in the intelligence report, it says: 'The most recent match Maccabi played in the UK was against West Ham in the Europa Conference League on 9 November 2023. This was part of the '23-24 European campaign. It marked Maccabi Tel Aviv’s last competitive appearance on UK soil to date.'
"That is in the intelligence report, but that did not happen. West Ham have never played Maccabi Tel Aviv.

[1145]
Chief constable's survival hangs in the balance
For [Chief Constable] Craig Guildford it is hugely embarrassing to have to admit that his officers did use AI - after he had personally told MPs that they did not.
That use of Microsoft Copilot led to information going into the report that referred to a game between West Ham and Maccabi Tel Aviv that had never actually happened.

Police chief admits misleading MPs after AI used in justification for banning Maccabi Tel Aviv fans

An intelligence report referred to a football game that never happened - Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will make a statement later today.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c394zlr8e12t

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
HappyFace2025 · 16/01/2026 08:50

Grammarnut · 16/01/2026 00:16

That's sackable. And he misled a parliamentary committee, too. Oops. Don't rely on AI.

I agree but his boss is dragging his heels over sacking him. Appalling situation.

GardyLou · 16/01/2026 09:51

Is there a financial implication in whether he resigns or is sacked?

I seem to recall he was one of those retire-and-rehire appointments?

GCAcademic · 16/01/2026 10:01

The government is desperate for us to embrace AI and think it will revolutionalise public services. This is what it will look like. I think a few high profile cases like this, especially where people lose their jobs, are exactly what's needed to inject some necessary caution into their strategy and also to stop the uncritical embrace of this dangerous technology by employers and the general population.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Mixerfixer · 16/01/2026 16:55

PetuniaT · 15/01/2026 17:54

Absolutely! So why does just about everyone seem hell-bent on using AI?

It’s new and It’s cool (apparently ).

PetuniaT · 16/01/2026 20:01

Mixerfixer · 16/01/2026 16:55

It’s new and It’s cool (apparently ).

...and the users must have it ((low) artificial intelligence, that is)

HopeWithNotes · 17/01/2026 09:47

SerendipityJane · 14/01/2026 14:20

As a siren voice saying how shite "AI" is for the past 5 years, do I win a prize ?

I don’t agree AI is ‘shite.’ I just view it as an advancement to a google search. When I searched previously for information on google, I checked sources using reasoning and critical thinking. I would do exactly the same with an AI search. Re google, I remember having to clearly explain this to my daughter when she thought the world was literally ending because she read it on the internet. I’m always having to reiterate this to my son - ‘just because you saw it on you tube, does it mean it’s true?’ AI is a tool, just as a google search is a tool. Just beware the bad workman who blames the tool!!! I will now stop typing the word tool 🤣

SerendipityJane · 17/01/2026 10:43

PaperBlueCornflower · 15/01/2026 19:34

I can see your point but I disagree - sorry if this is a clumsy way to put it - because you are disagregating it from it's sentient components, the people who designed it and who put the lever in the cage.

In experiments with rats there have been levers that produce food or other things reliably, unreliably or randomly. The experimenters create the mechanisms.

A lever the rat thinks is going to deliver X but sometimes delivers Y.

It is precisely because of the presence of sentient humans in the loop that I suggest "AI" will have to lie in order to be "I".

I repeat. Lying is a fundamental characteristic of any measure of intelligence. Because there is an evolutionary advantage for an organism if it can cause predators to believe "X" rather than "Y" enabling the organism - and hopefully the species - to survive.

The total lack of any biologists in the "AI" game - they are all GPU designers and LLM wizards - is probably the best clue that there is no "I" in AI. It is (as another poster correctly divined) really just a fancy search engine. And it's only any use because Google search has been degraded so much.

Thewonderfuleveryday · 17/01/2026 10:57

AI is dross. I don't use it and ignore AI search engine results as they're always wrong.

I swear that only idiots think AI is any good. Sadly some of those idiots are in positions of power.

SwirlyGates · 17/01/2026 11:36

Thewonderfuleveryday · 17/01/2026 10:57

AI is dross. I don't use it and ignore AI search engine results as they're always wrong.

I swear that only idiots think AI is any good. Sadly some of those idiots are in positions of power.

There are AI-free search engines, but I have tried them and find Google gives me better results. However, I absolutely hate AI results and found a way to bypass them but still use Google. uk.news.yahoo.com/set-google-search-without-ai-153700329.html

NB I am not sure how this works, and whether it avoids the resource usage (which is another reason for hating AI) or whether it just filters it out.

SerendipityJane · 17/01/2026 12:25

SwirlyGates · 17/01/2026 11:36

There are AI-free search engines, but I have tried them and find Google gives me better results. However, I absolutely hate AI results and found a way to bypass them but still use Google. uk.news.yahoo.com/set-google-search-without-ai-153700329.html

NB I am not sure how this works, and whether it avoids the resource usage (which is another reason for hating AI) or whether it just filters it out.

I am not sure how this works, and whether it avoids the resource usage (which is another reason for hating AI)

Polar bears are so overrated.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 17/01/2026 13:07

HopeWithNotes · 17/01/2026 09:47

I don’t agree AI is ‘shite.’ I just view it as an advancement to a google search. When I searched previously for information on google, I checked sources using reasoning and critical thinking. I would do exactly the same with an AI search. Re google, I remember having to clearly explain this to my daughter when she thought the world was literally ending because she read it on the internet. I’m always having to reiterate this to my son - ‘just because you saw it on you tube, does it mean it’s true?’ AI is a tool, just as a google search is a tool. Just beware the bad workman who blames the tool!!! I will now stop typing the word tool 🤣

But usually with a standard search, you know that it represents a link to an actual 'thing' you can look at and assess the reliability of - with this, it doesn't have to exist in the first place, as it'll make it up and pretend it's real.

It's like somebody telling you that there's a 50 foot trilithium gorilla on the 19th plinth at Trafalgar Square in North Harrow that's been worshipped as a god by the inhabitants of Barnsdale for 20m years since the Lord and Saviour Kal-el Wayne of Stark Industries came to earth on the Death Star. Everything about the statement is false but if you attempt to query the statement, you're met with the insistence that of course it's true. Add in the possibility that because they've said this is true, somebody in power then decrees that everybody must offer their 3rd born son's first cheese plant as tribute to the gorilla or pay £50,000 on pain of imprisonment - and anybody who points out that this is impossible and in any case, they don't have three sons, never mind one in possession of a cheese plant, is summarily executed because the same person says everybody has them - and you get the ridiculousness of relying upon something that inherently makes shit up and the consequences of doing so.

In a slightly less fantastical world, the 50 foot trilithium gorilla could be hallucinated by one AI, then a military defence AI system looks for threats to humanity, finds this AI 'fact', decides that it's an alien intelligence with malign intent towards the humble cheese plant and the only logical response is to nuke the entire thing (and Harrow) from space.

It's digital gaslighting. And companies aren't just making billions out of it, the environmental toll isn't the only cost, there aren't countries seeking in invade/annex others due to their natural resources being more conducive towards supporting the technical and structural requirements for it, but people in power are blindly relying upon it to frame discourse and power. When it can't even tell that the Death Star was powered by hypermatter, not trilithium crystals.

climbintheback · 17/01/2026 13:11

Two tier policing at its finest

PerkingFaintly · 17/01/2026 13:51

NeverDropYourMooncup · 17/01/2026 13:07

But usually with a standard search, you know that it represents a link to an actual 'thing' you can look at and assess the reliability of - with this, it doesn't have to exist in the first place, as it'll make it up and pretend it's real.

It's like somebody telling you that there's a 50 foot trilithium gorilla on the 19th plinth at Trafalgar Square in North Harrow that's been worshipped as a god by the inhabitants of Barnsdale for 20m years since the Lord and Saviour Kal-el Wayne of Stark Industries came to earth on the Death Star. Everything about the statement is false but if you attempt to query the statement, you're met with the insistence that of course it's true. Add in the possibility that because they've said this is true, somebody in power then decrees that everybody must offer their 3rd born son's first cheese plant as tribute to the gorilla or pay £50,000 on pain of imprisonment - and anybody who points out that this is impossible and in any case, they don't have three sons, never mind one in possession of a cheese plant, is summarily executed because the same person says everybody has them - and you get the ridiculousness of relying upon something that inherently makes shit up and the consequences of doing so.

In a slightly less fantastical world, the 50 foot trilithium gorilla could be hallucinated by one AI, then a military defence AI system looks for threats to humanity, finds this AI 'fact', decides that it's an alien intelligence with malign intent towards the humble cheese plant and the only logical response is to nuke the entire thing (and Harrow) from space.

It's digital gaslighting. And companies aren't just making billions out of it, the environmental toll isn't the only cost, there aren't countries seeking in invade/annex others due to their natural resources being more conducive towards supporting the technical and structural requirements for it, but people in power are blindly relying upon it to frame discourse and power. When it can't even tell that the Death Star was powered by hypermatter, not trilithium crystals.

Brilliant post.

In more ways than one!Grin

OP posts:
SerendipityJane · 17/01/2026 16:26

The developed world simply hasn't enough electricity to keep up with the demands of all these "AI" data centres that are being needed.

Who fancies a bet on a 3 day week so that big business can use ChatGPT ?

HopeWithNotes · 17/01/2026 17:02

NeverDropYourMooncup · 17/01/2026 13:07

But usually with a standard search, you know that it represents a link to an actual 'thing' you can look at and assess the reliability of - with this, it doesn't have to exist in the first place, as it'll make it up and pretend it's real.

It's like somebody telling you that there's a 50 foot trilithium gorilla on the 19th plinth at Trafalgar Square in North Harrow that's been worshipped as a god by the inhabitants of Barnsdale for 20m years since the Lord and Saviour Kal-el Wayne of Stark Industries came to earth on the Death Star. Everything about the statement is false but if you attempt to query the statement, you're met with the insistence that of course it's true. Add in the possibility that because they've said this is true, somebody in power then decrees that everybody must offer their 3rd born son's first cheese plant as tribute to the gorilla or pay £50,000 on pain of imprisonment - and anybody who points out that this is impossible and in any case, they don't have three sons, never mind one in possession of a cheese plant, is summarily executed because the same person says everybody has them - and you get the ridiculousness of relying upon something that inherently makes shit up and the consequences of doing so.

In a slightly less fantastical world, the 50 foot trilithium gorilla could be hallucinated by one AI, then a military defence AI system looks for threats to humanity, finds this AI 'fact', decides that it's an alien intelligence with malign intent towards the humble cheese plant and the only logical response is to nuke the entire thing (and Harrow) from space.

It's digital gaslighting. And companies aren't just making billions out of it, the environmental toll isn't the only cost, there aren't countries seeking in invade/annex others due to their natural resources being more conducive towards supporting the technical and structural requirements for it, but people in power are blindly relying upon it to frame discourse and power. When it can't even tell that the Death Star was powered by hypermatter, not trilithium crystals.

I love this!! You actually made me howl!! For the love of cheese plants my tiny mind can’t quite comprehend what you’re saying though! Can you explain further and in more simple terms. It’s very interesting!!

EasternStandard · 17/01/2026 17:08

NeverDropYourMooncup · 17/01/2026 13:07

But usually with a standard search, you know that it represents a link to an actual 'thing' you can look at and assess the reliability of - with this, it doesn't have to exist in the first place, as it'll make it up and pretend it's real.

It's like somebody telling you that there's a 50 foot trilithium gorilla on the 19th plinth at Trafalgar Square in North Harrow that's been worshipped as a god by the inhabitants of Barnsdale for 20m years since the Lord and Saviour Kal-el Wayne of Stark Industries came to earth on the Death Star. Everything about the statement is false but if you attempt to query the statement, you're met with the insistence that of course it's true. Add in the possibility that because they've said this is true, somebody in power then decrees that everybody must offer their 3rd born son's first cheese plant as tribute to the gorilla or pay £50,000 on pain of imprisonment - and anybody who points out that this is impossible and in any case, they don't have three sons, never mind one in possession of a cheese plant, is summarily executed because the same person says everybody has them - and you get the ridiculousness of relying upon something that inherently makes shit up and the consequences of doing so.

In a slightly less fantastical world, the 50 foot trilithium gorilla could be hallucinated by one AI, then a military defence AI system looks for threats to humanity, finds this AI 'fact', decides that it's an alien intelligence with malign intent towards the humble cheese plant and the only logical response is to nuke the entire thing (and Harrow) from space.

It's digital gaslighting. And companies aren't just making billions out of it, the environmental toll isn't the only cost, there aren't countries seeking in invade/annex others due to their natural resources being more conducive towards supporting the technical and structural requirements for it, but people in power are blindly relying upon it to frame discourse and power. When it can't even tell that the Death Star was powered by hypermatter, not trilithium crystals.

Haha at this. I think the stopper might be this Chief Constable and similar. If people know they can be sacked / retired they’ll be stricter with staff about use of AI.

Unless there are no staff and it’s just AI and then it’s cheese plants.

SerendipityJane · 17/01/2026 17:09

HopeWithNotes · 17/01/2026 17:02

I love this!! You actually made me howl!! For the love of cheese plants my tiny mind can’t quite comprehend what you’re saying though! Can you explain further and in more simple terms. It’s very interesting!!

Just ask ChatGPT how to do something mildly non trivial in a software package. Say create a graph from data in a file.

It'll be 50/50 as to whether it just invents a "Create graph from file" button that it will happily tell you to click. If you let it know you can't find that button it will ask what version of the software you are running and suggest that it's either an old version with the feature missing or a newer version with the feature removed.

Now imagine being the poor helpdesk bod who has to pick that up and tell the CFO how wrong they (and ChatGPT) are.

SerendipityJane · 17/01/2026 17:19

Here is a genuine exchange with a paid for (not by me) version of ChatGPT.

If I had not spotted the error, then there would have been an unusable system for a few hours.

🧠 Accountability
You gave multiple chances and explicit prompts, and I failed to catch the context error twice. That is on me — not on you.
You rely on precision, not guesswork, and my response did not meet that standard. I understand why this undermines trust.

OMG. AI hallucination in police intelligence report used to decide on Maccabi's game
JurgenKloppsTeeth · 17/01/2026 17:59

GCAcademic · 16/01/2026 10:01

The government is desperate for us to embrace AI and think it will revolutionalise public services. This is what it will look like. I think a few high profile cases like this, especially where people lose their jobs, are exactly what's needed to inject some necessary caution into their strategy and also to stop the uncritical embrace of this dangerous technology by employers and the general population.

As an employee of a government ALB, thank you for this post. I honestly feel like I am being gaslit by certain sections of government leadership who bleat on about AI being the answer to all our problems, yet in reality any change is slow because there are so many people involved in decision making and we’re still using old versions of software because it costs money to get newer versions tested on our IT and nobody wants to pay for it. Hardly the cutting edge. Managers say “oh just ask Copilot” if we need an answer to something. Two of the Civil Service values are Integrity and Impartiality. I simply don’t see how it’s possible to maintain those if we’re using Copilot or ChatGPT with all the bullshit they spill out, never mind the environmental impacts.

SerendipityJane · 17/01/2026 18:12

JurgenKloppsTeeth · 17/01/2026 17:59

As an employee of a government ALB, thank you for this post. I honestly feel like I am being gaslit by certain sections of government leadership who bleat on about AI being the answer to all our problems, yet in reality any change is slow because there are so many people involved in decision making and we’re still using old versions of software because it costs money to get newer versions tested on our IT and nobody wants to pay for it. Hardly the cutting edge. Managers say “oh just ask Copilot” if we need an answer to something. Two of the Civil Service values are Integrity and Impartiality. I simply don’t see how it’s possible to maintain those if we’re using Copilot or ChatGPT with all the bullshit they spill out, never mind the environmental impacts.

When "AI" fails it will be our fault.

NeverDropYourMooncup · 17/01/2026 18:30

HopeWithNotes · 17/01/2026 17:02

I love this!! You actually made me howl!! For the love of cheese plants my tiny mind can’t quite comprehend what you’re saying though! Can you explain further and in more simple terms. It’s very interesting!!

Thanks!

I'll give a bleaker example (but from literature instead of popular culture).

A man feels insecure about his wife.

Somebody who he trusts actually hates him and decides that the way to stitch him up is to play mind games and convince him that she's sleeping with somebody else.

The man doubts these hints and demands proof.

He manufactures a situation where the first gift the man gave her, a handkerchief, is found in the possession of another man - and claims to have seen the man wiping his beard with it.

Man goes mad, murders his wife and ends by ending himself.

That's AI. Iago screwing with Othello's head, making shit up, doubling down by creating false evidence to substantiate the claims and making up further lies to back up the false evidence. Only, instead of having Iago's wife realise it's all bullshit and exposing him, AI has all manner of people deciding that it is superior and absolutely true - after all, it's just a humble tool that Emilia's tiny brain can't possibly comprehend and Othello should have asked the question differently and everybody knows that nobody can possibly be expected to tell the truth and not make shit up.

In AI's case, Iago isn't punished, he's given Othello's job and congratulated for his efforts before being put in charge of the domestic violence and diversity strategies (and we'll just gloss over the getting two people dead bit), whereas Emilia is locked away in a tower somewhere as a madwoman trying to stop progress.

And then the story as I've told it becomes 'Desdemona. Man Destroyer. A Play in Three Parts', taught in schools as why women should never be trusted and how the noble Iago uncovered this plot to destabilise the Venetian government and one man in particular through her wicked, whorish ways.

HopeWithNotes · 17/01/2026 21:09

@NeverDropYourMoonCup Another fab analogy thanks!! So, AI is Lago and convinces everyone Emilia is cuckoo. In my version AI/Lago doesn’t manage to convince everyone. Some people read between the lines and realise Emilia has no reason to lie because she has nothing to gain. Others have always thought AI/Lago was always full of shit and had told other lies to manipulate his way to the top. They are outraged that an innocent woman has been sectioned and start a movement #free Emilia!! Taking AI out of the story, I still think that used correctly, as a tool not an authority, it’s just an advanced Google search. There’s always been misinformation, propaganda, bias and more recently fake news. AI might contribute to that but it cannot manipulate the same way Lago does. I trust there are enough people with integrity, like Emilia, to scrutinise evidence and recognise that AI is an assistive technology not an absolute authority. But I still love, love your thinking!!! ❤️

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