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The Norwegian news agency NTB published an article about Telenor's annual security report that contained multiple fabricated quotes and a nonexistent job title. The errors were attributed to the improper use of an external AI tool by a journalist, rather than the agency's approved internal tools. NTB retracted the article, initiated an internal review, and apologized to Telenor for the misinformation.
NTB allegedly published a news story about Telenor's annual security report that contained purportedly AI-generated errors, including five reportedly fabricated quotes and a nonexistent "security director." The article was reportedly created with an external AI tool and was withdrawn the same morning. Telenor alerted NTB to the inaccuracies, and NTB apologized, citing improper AI use and initiating internal review of its newsroom practices.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that inadvertently generate or spread incorrect or deceptive information, which can lead to inaccurate beliefs in users and undermine their autonomy. Humans that make decisions based on false beliefs can experience physical, emotional or material harms
Also classified as
The AI system failed to perform reliably by hallucinating entirely false quotes and a nonexistent person, showing a lack of capability and robustness.
The AI system generated fabricated quotes and false details about a corporate security report, leading to the publication of misleading information by a news agency.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed
The incident was caused by an AI system generating fabricated quotes and false information (hallucinations) during post-deployment use, which was an unintentional outcome of the user's goal to draft an article.
Added categories peak at 2: Minor (Epistemic Harm, Indirect)
An NTB journalist improperly used an unapproved external AI tool, leading to the temporary publication of an article with fabricated quotes and a fake job title regarding Telenor's security report. The article was quickly retracted, resulting in negligible national security impact and representing an established issue of AI hallucination under human-controlled conditions.
The report describes the AI system being used as a helper tool for journalists, specifically mentioning that NTB allows 'KI-hjelp' (AI help) and has an internal 'sitatsakhjelper' (quote assistant). This fits the Assistant category as it is designed to augment human writing capabilities rather than act autonomously.
Limited Risk: The system is used to generate text content. Under the EU AI Act, providers of AI systems that generate synthetic audio, image, video or text content must ensure that the outputs are marked as artificially generated, which aligns with Risk Level 3.
The AI system was used by a journalist to assist in drafting or processing a news article based on a report, which falls under the category of a Writing Assistant.
The report is highly detailed and comes from a reputable journalism industry source (Journalisten.no). It clearly identifies the cause (improper use of AI), the specific errors (five fabricated quotes, fake name/title), the affected parties (NTB, Telenor), and the actions taken (retraction, internal review). There is little ambiguity about what transpired.
None. The facts are clearly laid out and admitted to by NTB's news editor.
Technology
AI Hallucination
AI generated five fake quotes and a non-existent director name.
Unapproved AI Tool
The journalist used an external tool instead of NTB's internal tools.
Data Inputs
Inaccurate Input Processing
AI failed to accurately parse Telenor's actual security report.
Human Factors
Inadequate Verification
The journalist failed to verify the AI-generated quotes before publishing.
Improper AI Usage
The journalist used AI in an incorrect and unapproved manner.
Process and Methods
Flawed Editing Process
Editorial process allowed AI-generated text to be published without check.
Violation of Press Ethics
The publication violated VVP ethics codes 3.2 and 3.7 regarding sources.
Management
Inadequate Policy Enforcement
Management failed to ensure the exclusive use of approved internal tools.
Lack of Training on AI Risks
Journalists lacked adequate training on the risks of AI hallucination.
Regulatory Environment
Ethical Code Non-Compliance
Failure to adhere to Norwegian press ethics guidelines (VVP 3.2 and 3.7).
AI system involved
Identified by automated extraction; can differ from the alleged developers above.
