Overview

• Meta’s auto-translation tool wrongly declared Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah dead when translating a condolence post on Facebook and Instagram, causing widespread confusion.
• Siddaramaiah condemned the mistranslation on social media and directed his media advisor, K. V. Prabhakar, to formally request that Meta suspend Kannada auto-translation until accuracy improves.
• A Meta spokesperson acknowledged an AI-driven error, issued an apology and confirmed that the faulty Kannada translation glitch has been corrected.
• The Government of Karnataka is demanding a temporary halt to the Kannada auto-translation feature and a formal collaboration with qualified Kannada language experts before restoring it.
• Similar Meta translation mishaps in Myanmar, Palestine and Malaysia highlight the risks of relying solely on AI for nuanced regional language content.