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WF-VQBTK9

Buzzfeed AI ad recommends buying hat of man who died by suicide

Buzzfeed used an AI-powered ad platform that recommended a beanie similar to one worn by Brett Helling, a man who died by suicide, in a photograph on a Buzzfeed article. A reader saw the ad and reported it to 404 Media. The ad platform matched objects in images without understanding context.

Date it happened
2024-01-01
Organisation involved
Buzzfeed
Where this came from
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Attribution

This incident was imported from 404media.co. Our additions to it — the structured fields, the translation, the checks against other reports — are published under the same licence.

This is a record of what was reported, not a finding that anyone broke the law. If it names your organisation and you believe it is wrong, the corrections process is free and open to everyone.