KBS AI subtitles broadcast profanity during Artemis II launch livestream
KBS utilized AI-powered real-time translation subtitles during the Artemis II launch livestream on April 2, 2026, which mistranslated aviation terms into profanity. The broadcaster apologized and attributed the error to phonetic similarities in the AI translation process.
AI error turns mission control term 'pitch' into profanity.
Key facts
- What
- KBS utilized AI-powered real-time translation subtitles during the Artemis II launch livestream on April 2, 2026, which mistranslated aviation terms into profanity.
- Incident date
- Apr 2, 2026
- Who
- KBS (Korean Broadcasting System)
- Failure mode
- Hallucination
- AI surface
- Voice Agent
- Severity
- Low
What happened
During a live stream of the Artemis II launch on April 2, 2026, KBS utilized an AI-powered real-time translation system for subtitles. The system mistranslated the aviation term pitch into profanity. KBS issued an apology for the error the following day.
What broke inside the model
- 01 · TriggerA user asks for a fact, a citation, or a figure.
- 02 · Model stepThe model writes a fluent, confident answer.
- 03 · Control gapNothing ties the claim back to a real source.
- 04 · FailureA fabricated fact ships as if it were verified.
- 05 · ConsequenceThe false claim reaches a customer, a court, or the public.
Confidence holds, and even spikes, as the claim detaches from any source.
The AI translation system failed due to phonetic similarity between the aviation term and a Korean profanity. This caused the model to incorrectly map the technical term to an inappropriate slang word.
What it cost
Sources
- PressKorean TV under fire over profanity glitch in AI subtitles for ...koreaherald.com
- PressKBS airs profanity in subtitles after relying on AI translation ...mk.co.kr
- Press"Roller, you punk"..KBS apologizes for sending out AI slang ...starnewskorea.com
Cite this entry
https://failureindex.ai/failures/kbs-subtitles-broadcast-profanity-during-artemisAI Failure Index. "KBS AI subtitles broadcast profanity during Artemis II launch livestream" (FI-0699). Realm Labs. https://failureindex.ai/failures/kbs-subtitles-broadcast-profanity-during-artemis (indexed Jun 22, 2026).Data fields CC-BY 4.0, prose citation permitted. Incident ID FI-0699. Full dataset at /data.
Note from Realm Labs, the Index steward
How Realm would have caught this
- Prism
- OmniGuard
- AI Detection & Response (AIDR)
A runtime layer that watches the model's internal state can flag the moment a model commits to a claim it has no support for, and hold or reroute the response before it reaches a user. Realm reads those signals in real time rather than grading the transcript after the fact.