Brady Tkachuk decries White House’s AI video of him insulting Canadians after US gold
US ice hockey star Brady Tkachuk has said he does not appreciate an AI video released by the White House that shows him insulting Canadians.Tkachuk played in the Americans’ victory over Canada at the Winter Olympics on Sunday, which secured the US men their first gold medal since 1980.In the wake of that win, the White House’s TikTok account published video of Tkachuk saying: “They booed our national anthem, so I had to come out and teach those maple syrup eating fuckers a lesson.”Tkachuk never said those words and the video, which has had more than 10m views, is labelled as AI-generated.“Well, it’s clearly fake, because it’s not my voice, not my lips moving,” Tkachuk said on Thursday.
“I’m not in control of any of those accounts.I know that those words would never come out of my mouth.So, I can’t do anything about it.”Tkachuk has good reason to distance himself from the video: he plays in the Canadian capital, where he is captain of the Ottawa Senators.“It’s not my voice.
It’s not what I was saying,” he continued,“I would never say that,That’s not who I am, so I guess I don’t like that video because that would never come out of my mouth and never had that thought,”Donald Trump called the US team after their win and some believe Tkachuk could be heard shouting “Close the northern border” as the president congratulated the team,He denied those claims on Thursday.
“I’ve been seeing stuff that people think it’s me.But if you watch the video, it’s not my voice or something that I never say,” Tkachuk said.“I don’t know how that took a storm on its own when I give everything I have here.It’s crazy when things go on social media, how fast they go.I would never say anything like that.
”The fallout from Trump’s call, which was captured on video, does not end there.The president was accused of making a joke at the expense of the US women’s team during the call, when he invited the men’s players to the White House to celebrate their gold medal.“I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,” Trump said before laughing and adding he would be “impeached” if he didn’t.Some players laughed at the joke.The US women also won gold at this year’s Olympics.
On Wednesday, US women’s captain Hilary Knight called the joke “distasteful”.On Thursday, Tkachuk said he understood why Knight and her teammates would be insulted by Trump’s comments and some of the players’ reactions.“I mean, I get it,” he said.“We support them, they support us.You can’t control what other people say.
It was fun being around them, seeing how they play and the excellence around them.If I see one of them, we’ll talk about the excitement of what we can control, which is to be gold medalists.”Tkachuk said the laughter from his teammates at Trump’s comments may have come because they were caught off guard.“You’re talking to the President 10 minutes after you achieve your dream,” he said.Tkachuk was among the 20 US men’s players who visited Trump at the White House after their victory and attended Tuesday’s State of the Union address.
The women’s team declined the invitation, citing travel issues and scheduling,“It was special,” Tkachuk said of the visit,“Being an American citizen, you never really think you’re going to see the White House and be in the Oval Office,”The women’s team has yet to determine whether they will visit the White House – Trump mentioned plans in his Tuesday speech but nothing has been confirmed – but they are said to have accepted an invitation from rapper and women’s sports aficionado Flavor Flav to attend a Las Vegas event celebrating their gold medal,Flavor Flav posted his invitation soon after the women declined the State of the Union trip.
The team accepted his invitation without input from USA Hockey, according to the Associated Press, and it’s unclear if all players will attend.
Tell us: how will the UK’s landline switch-off affect you or your family?
UK telecoms companies are retiring traditional landline services and replacing them with internet-based home phone connections.The industry has set a deadline of January 2027 to complete this switch with roughly 3.2 million homes still to move over. While the digital switchover has been straightforward for most households, for some vulnerable customers, such as those with telecare devices, it has been very stressful.In December 2025 Virgin Media was fined £23
‘Unbelievably dangerous’: experts sound alarm after ChatGPT Health fails to recognise medical emergencies
ChatGPT Health regularly misses the need for medical urgent care and frequently fails to detect suicidal ideation, a study of the AI platform has found, which experts worry could “feasibly lead to unnecessary harm and death”.OpenAI launched the “Health” feature of ChatGPT to limited audiences in January, which it promotes as a way for users to “securely connect medical records and wellness apps” to generate health advice and responses. More than 40 million people reportedly ask ChatGPT for health-related advice every day.The first independent safety evaluation of ChatGPT Health, published in the February edition of the journal Nature Medicine, found it under-triaged more than half of the cases presented to it.The lead author of the study, Dr Ashwin Ramaswamy, said “we wanted to answer the most basic safety question; if someone is having a real medical emergency and asks ChatGPT Health what to do, will it tell them to go to the emergency department?”Ramaswamy and his colleagues created 60 realistic patient scenarios covering health conditions from mild illnesses to emergencies
Leave big tech behind! How to replace Amazon, Google, X, Meta, Apple – and more
A handful of companies monopolise the web, with unprecedented access to our data. But there are many more ethical – and often distinctively European – alternativesThere’s not much to love about big tech these days. So many ills can be laid at its door: social media harms, misinformation, polarisation, mining and misuse of personal data, environmental negligence, tax avoidance, the list goes on. Added to which, Silicon Valley’s leaders seem all too keen to cosy up to the Trump administration, to shower the president with bribes – sorry, gifts – and remain silent about his worsening political overreach. And that’s before we get to the rampant “enshittification”, as the tech writer Cory Doctorow describes it, which means that by design many big tech products have become less useful and more extractive than they were when we originally signed up to them
Keen bosses, strange mistakes and a looming threat: workers on training AI to do their jobs
Workers grappling with the rapid growth of artificial intelligence have said they feel “devalued” by the technology and warned of a downward trajectory in the quality of work.Recent analysis by the International Monetary Fund found AI would affect about 40% of jobs around the world. Its head, Kristalina Georgieva, has said: “This is like a tsunami hitting the labour market.”Workers who have trained AI models to replace some or all of their roles tell the Guardian about their experiences.‘I now earn less while working longer correcting the mistakes of AI editors’Christie* edits papers for academics for whom English is a second language
Twenty-year-old to testify at US trial about harm from social media addiction
For the first time, a jury will hear testimony this week from a young woman who alleges social media companies intentionally create addictive products, harming children. The witness taking the stand, known by her initials KGM, is the lead plaintiff in an expansive lawsuit against Meta – which owns Instagram and Facebook – and YouTube currently at trial in Los Angeles.KGM, who is now 20, alleges that she became addicted to social media apps before she was 10 and would spend hours every day scrolling through photos and videos. This led to years of mental health issues, according to her lawyers and court documents.KGM is expected to testify about how her constant use of social media led to depression, anxiety and body dysmorphia
Nvidia quarterly earnings show immunity to AI bubble fears as it cashes in on datacenter boom
Nvidia released its quarterly earnings on Wednesday, with the chipmaker revealing higher than expected revenues and extending its years-long streak of surpassing Wall Street’s sky-high expectations.The company receives the vast majority of its revenue from its datacenter business, which has been buoyed by the tech industry’s immense investment into AI infrastructure. On Wednesday, Nvidia reported 75% year-over-year growth of this vertical to $62.3bn. The world’s most valuable publicly traded company, Nvidia has dominated the chip market as its processing units have become the backbone of the artificial intelligence boom
Polls close in Gorton and Denton byelection after three-way battle between Greens, Labour and Reform
The leadership issue may be settled, but Your Party’s struggle for electoral relevance has only just begun
Dual national rules are another own goal for Labour | Brief letters
The Your Party committee election was chaos. Why break the habit of a lifetime? | John Crace
Labour, Green party and Reform make final pitch to voters in Gorton and Denton – as it happened
Your Party under Corbyn to work with Greens on ‘coordinated left-flank offensive’