{"id":3284,"date":"2026-08-12T22:36:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T22:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanhomejournals.com\/?p=3284"},"modified":"2026-08-12T22:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T22:36:18","slug":"google-falsely-said-sam-altman-was-dead-and-suggested-vandalized-public-sources-could-be-to-blame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanhomejournals.com\/?p=3284","title":{"rendered":"Google falsely said Sam Altman was dead \u2014 and suggested vandalized public sources could be to blame"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sam Altman is not dead, contrary to what a Google result earlier today may have told you.<\/p>\n

Read more David Protein founder\u2019s candy launch is full of AI typos. The brand\u2019s president says it\u2019s intentional \u2018rage bait.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Early Wednesday, users on X and Reddit pointed out that the Google search result for the OpenAI CEO’s name said he had died that same day.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

WTF….google says sam is dead? pic.twitter.com\/lciQwpjgtj<\/p>\n

\u2014 Farhan (@mhdfaran) August 12, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Google acknowledged the incorrect result several hours later.<\/p>\n

“Thanks for flagging – this is no longer appearing, and was not a manual change by Google,” Google said in a response on X. “When people vandalize public info sources, this can affect the information that appears in Search.”<\/p>\n

Google declined to comment when reached by Business Insider.<\/p>\n

Some commenters blamed Wikipedia vandalism, which the site itself describes as “editing a page in an intentionally disruptive or malicious manner.” Wikipedia, essentially the internet’s free encyclopedia, relies on volunteers to edit and update its pages.<\/p>\n

The revision history of the page for Sam Altman shows that editors were unusually active on Wednesday, with 22 updates listed that day alone. Prior to Wednesday, there had been a total of five updates to the page since the start of the month, each on a different day.<\/p>\n

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At 9:47 a.m. UTC, the page was updated to falsely say that Altman was assassinated and died on Wednesday. At 10:29 a.m., the page was corrected. The series of updates that followed included additional changes to the page, such as a reference to him being a “dropout,” another claim that he died, and the alteration of his last name to “Gayman” instead of Altman. The latest update, as of publication time, appeared to correct all the changes.<\/p>\n

Wikipedia did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.<\/p>\n

Google’s knowledge panels, the information that appears at the top of some search results, draw on a variety of public sources.<\/p>\n

“Wikipedia is a commonly-cited source, but it’s not the only one,” Google said in a post about the panels. “We draw from hundreds of sources from across the web, including licensing data that appears in knowledge panels for music, sports and TV.”<\/p>\n

Google also says it has a reporting system for users to flag incorrect information and that it will “manually remove policy-violating information that comes to our attention.”<\/p>\n

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OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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