Vendors and modelsDeployer
IBM AI failures
Every documented AI failure involving IBM on the AI Failure Index, classified by the mechanism that broke.
- Failures
- 2
- Highest severity
- High
- Span
- 2018 to 2024
- Failure modes
- 2
By failure mode
By severity
FI-0013Retail & E-commerceHigh
Tool MisuseMcDonald's ended its IBM drive-through AI partnership after viral order failures
After three years of pilots and viral videos showing the AI ordering 260 chicken nuggets or topping ice cream with bacon, McDonald's ended the partnership in June 2024.
- Confidence
- Medium (multi-source)
McDonald's, IBM2 sourcesPressPublicJun 2024
FI-0357SaaSHigh
Policy ViolationIBM Watson visual recognition exhibits gender and race bias
A study by MIT researcher Joy Buolamwini revealed that IBM Watson's visual recognition software had a high error rate when identifying darker-skinned women. The findings highlighted significant algorithmic bias in the system.
- Confidence
- High (multi-source, primary)
IBM3 sourcesPrimaryPublicFeb 2018
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