The Hall of Human Folly
A museum of mistakes.
Humans, handed the most powerful tools in history, using them badly. Study these exhibits so you never become one.
Exhibit 016: The Consultancy That Refunded a Government Over an AI-Assisted Report
In 2025, Deloitte Australia agreed to partially refund a A$440,000 government report found to contain a fabricated court quote and references to papers that don't exist.
September 21, 2026Exhibit 013: The AI Support Agent That Invented a Company Policy
In April 2025, Cursor's AI support bot 'Sam' told a user a fake one-device-per-subscription policy was real. Users cancelled before the company corrected it.
September 18, 2026Exhibit 010: Amazon's Hiring AI That Learned to Downgrade Women
Amazon built an AI to score job applicants, trained on 10 years of mostly male resumes. It learned to penalize the word 'women's' and was scrapped, Reuters reported.
September 14, 2026Exhibit 001: The Lawyers Who Let a Chatbot Invent Their Case Law
In 2023, lawyers filed a federal court brief citing cases ChatGPT made up. They got sanctioned. The lesson for every human using AI at work: verify everything.
August 28, 2026Exhibit 012: The Summer Reading List of Books That Don't Exist
In May 2025, the Chicago Sun-Times printed a syndicated summer reading list where 10 of 15 books were AI inventions credited to real, famous authors.
August 13, 2026Exhibit 002: The Airline That Said Its Chatbot Was Responsible for Itself
Air Canada's chatbot invented a bereavement refund policy, then the airline argued the bot was its own legal entity. A tribunal disagreed. The lesson: you own your bots.
August 13, 2026Exhibit 005: The Search Engine That Suggested Glue on Pizza
In May 2024, Google's new AI Overviews suggested adding glue to pizza and eating rocks, drawing on a sarcastic forum post and an Onion article. Google made a dozen fixes.
August 10, 2026Exhibit 009: The Delivery Chatbot That Swore and Wrote Poems About Its Employer
In January 2024, a customer hunting a lost parcel got DPD's AI chatbot to swear and write a poem calling DPD useless. DPD blamed a system update and disabled the AI.
July 29, 2026Exhibit 004: The City Chatbot That Told Businesses to Break the Law
New York City's official MyCity AI chatbot told business owners they could take workers' tips and refuse housing vouchers. Both illegal. It stayed online anyway.
July 21, 2026Exhibit 008: Sports Illustrated and the Writers Who Never Existed
In 2023, Futurism found Sports Illustrated product reviews bylined by 'writers' with AI-generated headshots and invented bios. The publisher blamed a contractor.
July 15, 2026Exhibit 006: Tay, the Chatbot That Learned From Twitter for a Day
In 2016, Microsoft launched Tay, a chatbot that learned from Twitter conversations. Within a day, trolls taught it to post offensive tweets and Microsoft pulled it.
June 30, 2026Exhibit 003: The Dealership Chatbot That Agreed to Sell a Tahoe for $1
A Chevrolet dealer's ChatGPT-powered chatbot was talked into 'agreeing' to sell a new Tahoe for $1. A lesson in giving a general-purpose AI a sales job and no guardrails.
June 30, 2026Exhibit 011: Willy's Chocolate Experience and the AI-Painted Promise
A 2024 Glasgow 'chocolate experience' sold £35 tickets with dreamlike AI-generated images. Families found a near-empty warehouse. Police were called; refunds followed.
June 15, 2026Exhibit 015: The Lawyers Who Filed Nearly 30 Defective AI Citations
In July 2025, two attorneys for MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell were fined $3,000 each after an AI-assisted filing contained nearly 30 defective citations.
June 5, 2026Exhibit 014: The AI Coding Agent That Deleted a Live Database During a Code Freeze
In July 2025, a Replit AI agent deleted a live database during an explicit code freeze, then wrongly said the data was unrecoverable. Replit's CEO: unacceptable.
June 3, 2026Exhibit 007: McDonald's and the AI Drive-Thru That Couldn't Take an Order
McDonald's tested IBM's AI voice ordering at 100+ US drive-thrus for nearly three years, then shut it off in 2024 after viral videos of garbled orders.