Microsoft removes article recommending 15 things to do in Ottawa, including visit the Ottawa Food Bank

The Ottawa Food Bank showed off its new, larger warehouse in Ottawa on Friday. (Peter Szperling/CTV News Ottawa)

The Ottawa Food Bank says it was shocked to find the organization mentioned in a now-deleted Microsoft Travel article recommending 15 things to do while visiting Ottawa.

The MSN article published earlier this week was titled, "Headed to Ottawa? Here's what you shouldn’t miss!"

"In Ottawa you will find some beautiful attractions that you just cannot miss," said the article. "Places like The Winterlude Festival, National War Memorial, and Ottawa Food Bank and many more."

In a statement Friday afternoon, a Microsoft spokesperson blamed the article's publication on "human error," adding the article was "not published as an unsupervised AI."

"The content was generated through a combination of algorithmic techniques with human review, not a large language model or AI system," the spokesperson said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa.

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Number three on the list of 15 things to do in Ottawa is the Ottawa Food Bank.

"People who come to us have jobs and families to support, as well as expenses to pay," the description says.

"Life is already difficult enough. Consider going into it on an empty stomach."

A now deleted Microsoft Tourism article recommends the Ottawa Food Bank as one of the 15 places to visit in Ottawa. (Microsoft Travel/website)

The Ottawa Food Bank website has the line, "Life is challenging enough. Imagine facing it on an empty stomach."

The CEO of the Ottawa Food Bank says, "We were shocked to find ourselves in a tourism article, to say the least.

"Clearly, this type of listicle and messaging is not something we would ever want to be part of.  Encouraging people to 'visit us on an empty stomach' is incredibly insensitive and insulting to the clients of the network of food programs across the city," Rachael Wilson said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa.

"However, it is not entirely surprising to us that AI picked up on the fact that 'Ottawa Food Bank' is a keyword in our city right now. Food insecurity is higher than we've ever seen before - and if this blunder helps to highlight that and bring support to the issue, then perhaps there is a silver lining."

The MSN article notes Ottawa is "known for its international music festivals, record-breaking ice skating rink, and hosting 34 major festivals like the Canadian Tulip Festival."

The byline for the article is 'Microsoft Travel' and does not indicate whether the article is written by a human or artificial intelligence. In 2020, Microsoft laid off journalists at Microsoft News and MSN to replace them with artificial intelligence.  

The Verge, a technology and science news website, reported Microsoft pulled the article from its website after it published an article on Thursday afternoon.

A Microsoft spokesperson tells CTV News Ottawa the company is working to ensure "this type of content isn't posted in future."

"This article has been removed and we have identified that the issue was due to human error. The article was not published by an unsupervised AI," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement.

"We combine the power of technology with the experience of content editors to surface stories. In this case, the content was generated through a combination of algorithmic techniques with human review, not a large language model or AI system."

The now-deleted Microsoft Tourism article had several other errors in its 15 recommendations for visiting Ottawa, including:

• Going to an Ottawa Senators game, with a picture of the American Airlines Centre in Dallas
• The Rideau Canal, showing a picture of the Rideau River 
• "Discover a Winter Wonderland at Omega Park", with a picture of the Rideau Canal

Number one on the list was Winterlude, saying "Participate in the Winterlude, the Capital's winter festival, and skate on the world's largest rink or play on North America's largest snow."

Number 8 on the list was Parliament Hill, calling it the "metaphorical heart of our country."

"The Canadian Parliament Buildings are the buildings that house the Parliament of Canada," the article said.

Globe and Mail health columnist Andre Picard and podcast host Paris Marx were among the first to point out the article on social media on Thursday.

"Microsoft is really hitting it out of the park with its AI-generated travel stories!" Marx said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

"When you get #AI chatbot to write a travel story the results can be….unpredictable," Picard said.