Google Search briefly displayed false information claiming OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had died on 12 August 2026 after an apparent vandalism edit to his Wikipedia page was picked up by Google's automated systems. The error appeared in Altman's Google information card on Wednesday, 13 August, despite no reports from major news organisations confirming that the 41-year-old technology executive had died.
The false death notice was quickly removed after users flagged it. Google said the information had not been manually entered by the company, but instead appeared to have been pulled from a public information source that had been altered.
