The chief of West Midlands police has apologised to MPs for giving them incorrect evidence about the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans, saying it had been produced by artificial intelligence (AI).
Craig Guildford told the home affairs select committee on Monday that the inclusion of a fictitious match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and West Ham in police intelligence “arose as a result of a use of Microsoft Copilot”.
The chief constable had previously told MPs that the force did not use AI and the mistake regarding the West Ham match, which had never taken place, was made by “one individual doing one Google search”.
It comes as the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, prepares to make a statement to MPs about the findings of a report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary into the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending a Europe League match against Aston Villa in November.
The fake West Ham match was a part of intelligence that was presented to the council-led security advisory group, who made the decision to ban away fans.
In an email to the home affairs select committee published on Wednesday, Guildford said he would like to offer his “profound apology” for the error.
“I had understood and been advised that the match had been identified by way of a Google search in preparation for attending HAC. My belief that this was the case was honestly held and there was no intention to mislead the committee.”