MICROSOFT CORPORATION | Report on AI Misinformation and Disinformation

Status
Filed
AGM date
Proposal number
8
Resolution details
Company ticker
MSFT
Lead filer
Arjuna Capital
Resolution ask
Report on or disclose
ESG theme
  • Social
ESG sub-theme
  • Other
Type of vote
Shareholder proposal
Filer type
Shareholder
Company sector
Technology
Company HQ country
United States
Resolved clause
Resolved, Shareholders request the Board issue a report, at reasonable cost, omitting proprietary or legally privileged information, to be published within one year of the Annual Meeting and updated annually thereafter, assessing the risks to the Company’s operations and finances as well as risks to public welfare presented by the company’s role in facilitating misinformation and disinformation disseminated or generated via artificial intelligence, and what steps, if any, the company plans to remediate those harms, and the effectiveness of such efforts.
Whereas clause
Whereas, There is widespread concern that generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) may dramatically increase misinformation and disinformation globally, posing serious threats to democracy and democratic principles.

“I’m particularly worried that these models could be used for large-scale disinformation,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT along with Microsoft.1

Microsoft has invested over 13 billion dollars in OpenAI, and has integrated ChatGPT into its AI-powered digital assistant Copilot.2

The Washington Post found Microsoft’s Bing chat provided inadequate or inaccurate answers in about 10 percent of questions asked.3 Recently, Copilot produced responses that users referred to as “bizarre, disturbing, and in some cases, harmful.”4 While Microsoft has limited responses to election-related questions in English, one report found Microsoft provided partially or completely incorrect responses to election-related questions in other languages.5 Microsoft’s products have also been used to create deepfake pornography, and in one case, to develop a campaign chatbot that spewed conspiracy theories.6,7

Generative AI’s disinformation may pose serious risks to democracy by manipulating public opinion, undermining institutional trust, and swaying elections. Eurasia Group ranked generative AI as the fourth highest political risk globally, warning disinformation will be used to “influence electoral campaigns, stoke division, and undermine trust in democracy.”8

Shareholders are concerned that generative AI presents Microsoft with significant legal, financial and reputational risk. Many legal experts believe technology companies’ liability shield provided under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act may not apply to content generated by AI. Senator Wyden, who wrote the law, says Section 230 “has nothing to do with protecting companies from the consequences of their own actions and products.”9 Microsoft has also already faced substantial defamation litigation due to misinformation produced by the Company’s generative AI.10 Microsoft will also need to be responsive to the evolving AI regulatory landscape – including the EU’s AI Act, Biden’s executive AI order, and several legislative proposals.11

Satya Nadella recently stated, “Our responsibility…is all of the guardrails that we need to place around the technology so that there’s more safe content that’s being produced…I think we can govern a lot more than we think.”12


1 https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/20/openai-ceo-sam-altman-says-hes-a-little-bit-scared-of-ai.html

2 https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/08/microsofts-complex-bet-on-openai-brings-potential-and-uncertainty.html

3 https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/04/13/microsoft-bing-ai-chatbot-error/

4 https://fortune.com/2024/02/28/microsoft-investigating-harmful-ai-powered-chatbot/

5 https://democracy-reporting.org/en/office/global/publications/follow-up-study-on-electoral-disinformation-by-chatbots

6 https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/ai-generated-sexual-images-of-taylor-swift-are-alarming-and-terrible-says-microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-but-what-can-the-tech-giant-do-about-it; https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/google-bing-deepfake-porn-image-celebrity-rcna130445

7 https://www.wired.com/story/robert-f-kennedy-jr-chatbot-microsoft-openai-disappeared/

8 https://www.eurasiagroup.net/live-post/risk-4-ungoverned-ai

9 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/17/ai-chatbots-wont-enjoy-techs-legal-shield-section-230-authors-say/

10 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/03/business/media/ai-defamation-lies-accuracy.html —:~:text=Some%20people%2C%20however%2C%20are%20starting%20to%20 confront%20artificial,name.%20Microsoft%20declined%20to%20comment%20on %20the%20lawsuit.

11 https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/01/05/1086203/whats-next-ai-regulation-2024/

12 https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/ai-generated-sexual-images-of-taylor-swift-are-alarming-and-terrible-says-microsoft-ceo-satya-nadella-but-what-can-the-tech-giant-do-about-it

Shareholders seek greater transparency into these guardrails and their effectiveness in preventing the risks of misinformation and disinformati

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