A Google search error briefly caused confusion after incorrectly indicating that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had died.

According to the U.S. online community Reddit and social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on the 12th (local time), Google displayed search results that morning stating that CEO Altman had passed away that day.

Netizens shared screenshots of these search results on social media, repeatedly pointing out that Google was spreading false information.

Some netizens joked, "Altman left behind sub-agents as surviving family," and "Did the new Gemini 3.5 Pro do this?"

As the situation escalated, Google issued a statement via its official X account a few hours later, saying, "Thanks for flagging this. This is no longer appearing and was not a manual change on our end."

Google added, "When people tamper with public information sources, it can impact the information that appears in search results."

While Google did not specify what it meant by "public information sources," it is presumed to refer to Wikipedia.

Looking at the revision history of the "Sam Altman" page on English Wikipedia, malicious vandalism was repeatedly committed, such as posting false claims that CEO Altman was assassinated that day or changing his last name from "Altman" to "Gayman."

Wikipedia has currently restricted editing on the page to registered users only to prevent such vandalism.

(Photo: Capture of an X post, Yonhap News)