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Canva Fixes AI Tool That Replaced 'Palestine' With 'Ukraine'

An internal audit now seeks the cause, with new checks to prevent politically sensitive errors.

Overview

  • Users on X reported that Magic Layers, a Canva feature for breaking flat images into editable parts, changed the phrase “Cats for Palestine” to “Cats for Ukraine” without any prompt.
  • Canva said it investigated the issue, confirmed a fix, and apologized for any distress the swap caused.
  • The company began an audit to learn how the bug arose, with added testing designed to catch unexpected outputs before release.
  • Reports indicated inconsistent behavior, as some users reproduced the change while others, including a Verge reporter, could not.
  • The swap appeared limited to the word “Palestine,” with terms like “Gaza” unaffected, renewing concerns about AI bias and moderation rules seen in past tools from Meta and ChatGPT.