Coinbase AI Sends Mass "Breaking News" Alert About World Cup Match Before It Happened — With the Wrong Score
Published · curated by AI Is Going Just Great
Source: futurism.com ↗
"Norway did win and Haaland did score 2 goals, so maybe the AI knew something we didn't!" — Coinbase's head of consumer products, on the hallucinated pre-game alert
Crypto marketplace Coinbase sent out an AI-generated breaking news alert claiming Norway had beaten Brazil 3-2 to advance to the FIFA World Cup quarterfinals — before the match had even kicked off. Norway did eventually beat Brazil, but the final score was 2-1, making the alert wrong on timing and scoreline. The blunder was especially pointed given Coinbase's partnership with prediction markets app Kalshi; a hallucinated match result pushed to bettors before the game starts is not just embarrassing, it's a potential financial harm vector.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong offered a sheepish "Taking a look with the team" on social media, while head of consumer products Max Branzburg later assured users the story had been corrected and improvements were incoming — before oddly spinning the situation by noting that "Norway did win and Haaland did score 2 goals, so maybe the AI knew something we didn't!" The AI did not know something they didn't. It fabricated a result for a game that hadn't started.