Google apologized in February 2026 after an AI-generated news push notification sent to users included a racial slur, according to reporting by Engadget and Deadline. The notification linked to a Hollywood Reporter story about an incident at the BAFTA Film Awards, and the slur appeared in the AI-generated text beneath the link.
The notification was first flagged publicly by an Instagram user who posted a screenshot of the alert. Google subsequently said it had removed the offensive notification and was working to prevent a recurrence. The company did not detail how the AI summarization system produced the wording.
The underlying news event involved an audience member with Tourette syndrome who shouted the slur during a BAFTA awards presentation featuring actors Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo. The AI-generated alert reproduced the word rather than describing the incident, which is the step a human editor would typically take.
The episode follows earlier problems with AI-generated news notifications across the industry. Apple paused its own AI notification summaries in 2025 after the feature produced a series of inaccurate alerts, including one that wrongly told readers that the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare's chief executive had shot himself. Industry observers have pointed to such cases as evidence that automated summarization systems can fail in high-visibility, brand-damaging ways when deployed in news distribution without editorial review.
Source: Engadget -- https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-sent-an-ai-generated-push-alert-that-included-a-racial-slur-195951493.html