Incident 463: Apple Devices Mistook Skiing Activities, Dialed False Distress Emergency Calls

Description: Apple devices of skiers and snowboarders reportedly misclassified winter activities as accidents, which resulted in numerous false inadvertent distress calls to 911 dispatchers.

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Alleged: Apple developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed Apple Watch users doing winter activities , ski patrols and emergency dispatchers.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
463
Report Count
3
Incident Date
2022-11-15
Editors
Khoa Lam
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

7.3. Lack of capability or robustness

Risk Domain

  1. AI system safety, failures, and limitations

Entity

AI

Timing

Post-deployment

Intent

Unintentional

Apple watches spur 'dramatic' increase in 911 calls at Schweitzer Mountain, according to sheriff's office
spokesman.com · 2023

Skiers and snowboarders carrying Apple Smart watches have triggered a “dramatic increase in unintentional 911 calls,” according to the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office.

“Last Saturday, nearly 30% of our 911 calls were unintentional 911 calls …

‘My Watch Thinks I’m Dead’
nytimes.com · 2023

FRISCO, Colo. — On a recent sunny Sunday morning, following a night of fluffy snowfall, tens of thousands of skiers flocked to the resorts of Summit County. Just minutes after the lift lines opened, sirens began blaring in the 911 emergency…

Hello, what's your emergency? iPhone 14 wrongly dialling 911 on Alberta ski hills
cbc.ca · 2023

Skiers and snowmobilers hitting the bumpy trails in North America have been triggering emergency calls to local responders, thanks to a safety feature programmed into the newest iPhones and Apple watches.

The iPhone 14 and Apple Watch 8, bo…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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