> On 6 January, Guildford told MPs on the home affairs committee that officers had found this material through a Google search that did not involve use of AI functions. "We do not use AI," he said in evidence to MPs.
“I had understood and been advised that the match had been identified by way of a Google search in preparation for attending HAC. My belief that this was the case was honestly held and there was no intention to mislead the committee.”
Maybe in a court of law, but "lying" is generally understood as making an untrue statement from a position of supposed knowledge, which this certainly is. It's an often used trick to make an absolute statement about something and then when later found out, they deny that they knew the specifics despite being in a position where that knowledge would be very much part of their job. Accountability is what we need rather than weasel words and assurances that can't be trusted.
I think you're being disingenuous as that's just one meaning of "lying". From your supplied link there's also:
an inaccurate or untrue statement; falsehood.
The point is that it was part of his job to know the answers to the questions put to him by the MPs which is why they were asking him those questions. If he didn't know the answer, then he should have made that clear, though that should also be grounds to get rid of him if he's that useless. If he wasn't deliberately lying (i.e. unintentionally lying), then that suggests incompetence and would be ample grounds to get rid of him.
Anyhow, I'm not interested in arguing semantics as the MPs were misled by him and it may be impossible to determine his exact state of knowledge at the time or his intentions.
Fair enough - I wouldn't have used the term "blatantly" as it does seem as likely down to incompetence. I think that public officials need to be kept to a high standard of accuracy when responding to MPs. I've mentioned in some other thread how this can be compared with the Post Office scandal where the Post Office (can't remember who in particular) made explicit statements to MPs about the accuracy of the Horizon system.
