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Low reported severity

Google AI Overview reportedly states that an orthopedic surgeon in Negrar is dead after a homonym's death

Italian outlets report that Google's AI Overview feature told searchers that Claudio Zorzi, head of orthopedics and traumatology at the IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria hospital in Negrar (Verona), had died. According to the hospital, the surgeon is alive and operating, and the error probably came from confusion with a general practitioner of the same name who died. The false news is reported to have circulated since April 2025 and to have recurred. Zorzi said he felt uncomfortable because people who think he is dead do not look for him, and he reported the notice to the postal police. On 15 October 2025 the hospital served Google, through its lawyers, with a formal cease-and-desist and default notice and reserved a damages claim. No Google response was found. The AI Overview output itself was not inspected.

AI system
Google AI Overviews
Google
Occurred
Apr 2025
Reported
15 October 2025
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Made a claim about the person
Reported harm
Reputational Harm
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Health · Work
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 4 sources, 2 underlying accounts
6 claims: 6 reported. 7 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: AI Overviews (Google Search)

Reported harm

The hospital describes the false death notice as seriously damaging to the image and reputation of the hospital and its department head. Zorzi says he is uncomfortable because people who think he is dead do not look for him, and he asked the postal police to have the notice removed (his statements as quoted by Il Mattino). No loss of patients or income is reported.

What remains unknown

  • The AI Overview output was not inspected and no screenshot is described in the sources. No source dates an AI Overview output: the sources date the false news to April (year not printed, read as 2025 from the October 2025 article dates), and Adnkronos alone ties the April news to AI Overview.
  • Whether the hospital's April-to-October timeline concerns the AI Overview or other web pages is not settled. Salutextutti says the news 'emerged on 15 October 2025' and 'in April 2025', which is inconsistent, so that outlet is used only for the hospital location.
  • No Google response, correction or removal is reported in the inspected sources.
  • Il Mattino says the hospital explained 'un mese fa' (about a month before 16 October 2025) that its surgeon was in good health, and that the hospital also published a post saying he was not dead. The date of the post is not stated.
  • Where and when Zorzi's quoted statements were made is not stated. The Il Mattino quote about patients may come from an earlier interview.
  • No loss of patients, income or other concrete consequence beyond the reported reputational damage and the police report is described.
  • Il Mattino is marked for premium subscribers. The saved text runs to the closing '© RIPRODUZIONE RISERVATA' line with no mid-word break and is treated as the whole article, although a paywall could hide text the page did not show.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The hospital's note, relayed by Sanità Informazione, Adnkronos and others, says the system generated the output that the surgeon had died. Il Mattino writes that 'according to the artificial intelligence' the surgeon had died. The AI Overview output was not inspected.

6 claims: 6 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The hospital states that, when the search engine was queried, Google's AI Overview feature generated an output saying that surgeon Claudio Zorzi had died, and that Zorzi is alive and still directs the department and operates.

Causal attribution. The sources report the connection between the AI output and the reported consequence; no court, regulator or independent finding of causation was inspected.

Reported The hospital and the press attribute the error to confusion with a homonymous general practitioner who died; Il Mattino states that a general practitioner of the same name did die.

Causal attribution. The hospital says the error was 'verosimilmente' (probably) caused by a homonym. No source shows how the AI system produced the output.

Reported Il Mattino and Adnkronos report that the false news of the surgeon's death first spread in April (2025, by their October 2025 publication dates) and, according to Il Mattino, kept reappearing online despite a denial, including in September.

Causal attribution. Adnkronos ties the April false news to Google's AI Overview in its own text. The hospital note relayed by Sanità Informazione says only that the false news spread 'di recente', and Il Mattino dates the 'death' to April without saying which service showed it. No source dates an AI Overview output.

Reported Il Mattino quotes Zorzi as saying he is alive and uncomfortable because people who think he is dead do not look for him, and reports that he turned to the postal police to have the notice removed. The hospital describes the false content as seriously damaging to its image and to the reputation of the department head.

Causal attribution. The statements are attributed to Zorzi and the hospital by Il Mattino, and the place and date of the quotes are not stated. No loss of patients is reported.

Reported On or before 15 October 2025 the hospital, through its lawyers, served Google with a formal cease-and-desist and default notice demanding correction and deletion of the false death notice from all Google services including AI Overview, search results and cached pages, and reserved court action and a damages claim.

Causal attribution. The hospital's own announcement of its own action, relayed by three outlets that share one chain; the notice itself was not inspected.

Reported The hospital is located in Negrar, in the province of Verona.

Causal attribution. Location statement only.

Sources

4 sources inspected, from 2 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Italian original read directly by the reviewer (machine-assisted reading, no human translator). Applies to s1.

Italian original read directly (machine-assisted reading, no human translator). The page is marked for premium subscribers; its saved text runs to the closing copyright line. Applies to s2.

Adnkronos wire text republished by a communications site. Italian original read directly (machine-assisted reading, no human translator). Applies to s3.

Italian original read directly (machine-assisted reading, no human translator). This rewrite adds statements that conflict with the other sources on dates and is used only for the location of the hospital. Applies to s4.

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Italy. Court countries: Unknown.

Sanità Informazione and Salutextutti place the surgeon's hospital in Negrar, in the province of Verona. Where searchers entered the queries is not stated, so no event country is recorded and no country is inferred from the language or the outlets.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-29: Four Italian reports read (Il Mattino is marked for premium subscribers; its saved text is complete to the closing copyright line). Three (Sanità Informazione, Adnkronos, Salutextutti) relay the hospital's note of 15 October 2025 and are one reporting chain. Il Mattino adds its own reporting with quotes from the surgeon and background on the homonym. The surgeon is named because his hospital named him in its own public note and post and because Il Mattino quotes him by name (for example: 'Sono vivo, sano e vegeto, perfettamente efficiente'). The AI Overview output was not inspected, so the account is reported, and the date is the month in which the press says the false news spread.

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

0 AI participants · 1 other person harmed

One person, the surgeon named as dead. The hospital is an organisation and is not counted. The doctor who actually died and that doctor's family are not reported as harmed by the AI output and are not counted.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Google AI Overview reportedly states that an orthopedic surgeon in Negrar is dead after a homonym's death. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-negrar-italy-google-ai-overview-reported-false-death-notice-orthopedics-chief

BibTeX

@misc{2025_negrar_italy_google_ai_overview_reported_false_death_notice_orthopedics_chief,
  title = {Google AI Overview reportedly states that an orthopedic surgeon in Negrar is dead after a homonym's death},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-negrar-italy-google-ai-overview-reported-false-death-notice-orthopedics-chief}
}

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