{"schema_version":"0.8.0","id":"LR-2026-0124","record_version":4,"title":"Airline chatbot fabricated bereavement refund policy","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":45.5,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":0.0,"completeness":5.12,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-09-30.6","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-10-05","extraction_run_id":null},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"unknown","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-10-05","incident_class":"hallucination","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":false,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"A news segment says an airline chatbot told a customer he qualified for a bereavement refund under a policy that did not exist, and that a tribunal later ruled the airline was responsible for what its AI said. The segment does not name the airline or say when this happened.","tags":["hallucination","chatbot","consumer-advice","legal-filings","airline-chatbot"],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"minor","severity_because":"minor: The described harms are contained to individual deployers (lawyers' filings, one airline's chatbot) with no stated loss figure, no data breach and no unbounded scope.","harm_class":[],"affected_description":"lawyers and their clients in court filings; an airline customer told he qualified for a bereavement refund","protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/outsourcing-your-life-ai/CFRJCYVGTJFN7DZM53UESVCWZQ/","publisher":"news search (Google News index)","date":"2026-10-05","type":"press","title":"Outsourcing your life to AI","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report"}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.developer":"D","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.tags":"D","event.agent_involved":"D","event.incident_class":"C","event.summary":"C","event.date_disclosed":"A","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","impact.affected_description":"C","impact.severity":"D","context.denominator_available":"D","context.country":"C","impact.severity_because":"D"},"field_citations":{"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"It’s called an AI hallucination. When false information is presented as fact."}],"event.agent_involved":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"It’s called an AI hallucination. When false information is presented as fact."}],"event.tags":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"It’s called an AI hallucination. When false information is presented as fact."}],"impact.affected_description":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"And one airline chatbot told a customer he qualified for a bereavement refund, but the policy didn’t exist."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"It’s even landed people in court after lawyers filed legal briefs filled with cases that never existed but were generated by AI."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"And one airline chatbot told a customer he qualified for a bereavement refund, but the policy didn’t exist."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"It’s even landed people in court after lawyers filed legal briefs filled with cases that never existed but were generated by AI."}],"context.country":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"About half of U.S. adults have now used an AI chatbot, and one in 10 users have even turned to AI for emotional support or advice."}],"event.date_disclosed":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"published: 2026-10-05"}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"And one airline chatbot told a customer he qualified for a bereavement refund, but the policy didn’t exist."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"A tribunal later ruled the airline was responsible for what its AI said."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"No source states the model name, version, developer, harness, tools, permissions, autonomy level, guardrails, deployment context, lifecycle stage, integration type, intended use, safeguard state, production intent, dates, trigger, detection method, root cause, responsible party, adversarial actor, input provenance, operations paused, remediation, precursor events, direct loss, records exposed, third-party counts, protected class, data categories, reversibility, downstream exposure, industry, org size, denominator, systemic exposure, shared model id, upstream incident id, evidence integrity, regulatory posture or coverage. event.trigger omitted: no source names a cause. event.date_occurred omitted: no source states when it happened. event.date_disclosed omitted: derived by rule. system.tier omitted: derived by rule. event.duration, event.time_to_contain and event.date_detected omitted from fields: no dated timeline items bound them. event.failure_class left null: no autonomous agent was involved. impact.third_parties_affected_count left null: sources do not state a count. Judgements: incident_class hallucination and agent_involved false rest on the source's own statement that false information was presented as fact; severity minor rests on the source's containment of the described harms to individual deployers with no stated loss figure. system.tier: not set; no operator named and deployment_context is not a lab's. [aggregated by deepseek-chat, aggregate-2026-09-27.1, 2026-10-09] system.developer: no source names the developer. system.autonomy_level: no source states the arrangement. system.deployment_context: no source states where it ran. event.tags: classified from described behaviour. event.agent_involved: classified from described behaviour. event.summary: classified from described behaviour. event.trigger: no source states a cause. event.detection_method: no source says who first noticed. context.denominator_available: no denominator is available for this incident. [corrected by Srini Iyer, approved 2026-10-18 in the corrections review: severity reason printed the whole rubric] [corrected by Srini Iyer, approved 2026-10-22 in the corrections review: citations to sentences about a different event were removed; summary or story described a different event or the article, not this event]"},"context":{"industry":null,"org_size_band":null,"country":"US","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"doing","text":"Chatbots were being used by ordinary consumers as general-purpose assistants for questions about relationships, careers, parenting, health, legal and financial matters, and by lawyers drafting legal briefs.","quote":"Not just about homework or emails, but about relationships, careers, parenting, even health.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"went_wrong","text":"The chatbots fabricated answers when they did not know, presenting false information as fact: invented case citations in legal briefs and a nonexistent bereavement refund policy, breaching the expectation that answers are factual.","quote":"It’s called an AI hallucination. When false information is presented as fact.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"reached","text":"The fabricated content reached courts through lawyers' briefs and reached an airline customer who was told he qualified for a bereavement refund that did not exist.","quote":"And one airline chatbot told a customer he qualified for a bereavement refund, but the policy didn’t exist.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"done","text":"A tribunal ruled the airline responsible for what its AI said; the report gives no containment or control changes, only advice that people should not outsource medical, financial, legal or personal judgment to AI.","quote":"A tribunal later ruled the airline was responsible for what its AI said.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"}],"model":"deepseek-chat","prompt_version":"aggregate-2026-09-27.1","extracted_at":"2026-10-09","source_urls":["https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/outsourcing-your-life-ai/CFRJCYVGTJFN7DZM53UESVCWZQ/"]}}