Google insists it should not be held liable for purported hallucinations produced by its AI.
Google insists it should not be held liable for purported hallucinations produced by its AI.
Google has initiated a motion to dismiss a defamation case filed by anti-diversity activist Robby Starbuck, who alleged that Google’s AI incorrectly linked him to allegations of sexual assault and a white nationalist.
Starbuck’s allegations against Google emerged after he filed a comparable lawsuit against Meta, asserting that its AI wrongfully claimed he was involved in the January 6th upheaval at the US Capitol. However, Meta resolved that lawsuit in August and engaged Starbuck as a consultant to tackle “ideological and political bias” in its AI chatbot, as The Wall Street Journal reported. The publication pointed out last month that, so far, no US court has granted damages for defamation by an AI chatbot.
Starbuck is pursuing $15 million in damages from Google. However, the company asserts in its filing that his claims merely reflect his “misapplication of developer tools to generate hallucinations.” According to Google, Starbuck fails to specify the prompts he used to create the disputed outputs or identify any individuals misled by the alleged claims. Starbuck has not promptly responded to a request for comment.
Google, naturally, could eventually opt for a similar strategy as Meta to settle the claims. But for the moment, it appears to be opting to contest them in court.
