Meta apologizes for AI translation error that wrongly declared Indian state chief minister's death

"We fixed an issue that briefly caused inaccurate Kannada translations. We apologize for this error," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement to the Press Trust of India.

The U.S. tech giant acknowledged that its machine translation system had produced errors on Facebook and Instagram, but claimed the issue has been rectified, India's Chief Minister's Office said, as quoted by NDTV.

Its AI-powered translation tools are utilized across Facebook and Instagram to translate public bios and content.

The error occurred on July 15, when the Chief Minister’s office shared a message in Kannada language mourning the death of veteran actress B. Sarojadevi.

However, Meta's automatic English translation read: "Chief Minister Siddaramaiah passed away yesterday multilingual star, senior actress B. Took darshan of Sarojadevi’s earthly body and paid his last respects."

Siddaramaiah, the Chief Minister of Karnataka, a state in southwestern India. Photo courtesy of Siddaramaiah's Facebook

Siddaramaiah quickly responded, criticizing the translation. "Faulty auto-translation of Kannada content on Meta platforms is distorting facts and misleading users. This is especially dangerous when it comes to official communication. My media advisor has formally written to Meta urging immediate correction," he said in a post on X, as reported by Hindustan Times.

"Social media platforms must act responsibly. I caution citizens to be aware that translations shown are often inaccurate. Such negligence by tech giants can harm public understanding and trust," Siddaramaiah added.

The Karnataka state government has called for Meta to temporarily disable its Kannada auto-translation feature until the system's accuracy is improved. The state also urged Meta to collaborate with Kannada language experts to enhance translation quality.

Kannada, the official language of Karnataka, is spoken by around 45 million people as their first language and an additional 15 million as their second language, according to CNN.