Google Ordered to Face Robby Starbuck’s AI Defamation Lawsuit
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Alphabet Inc.'s Google LLC lost its bid Friday to escape a court case raising the specter of liability for false statements made by an artificial intelligence chatbot.<br>A Delaware Superior Court judge let the conservative activist Robby Starbuck move forward with claims that the tech giant’s Bard AI product — a predecessor of its current Gemini model — defamed him.<br>The ruling could leave Google on the hook for Bard results that allegedly spread false sexual assault accusations, incorrectly linked Starbuck to the “notorious white supremacist” Richard Spencer, and offered arguments in favor of his execution.<br>Judge Meghan A. Adams said in a 36-page ruling that the dispute opened “a new frontier for defamation law, in which artificial intelligence tools are allegedly employed to effectuate the defamatory ends of their makers.”<br>But while the case may ultimately “force the court to take a deep dive into those novel issues,” the initial stages hinge only ordinary defamation precedents, Adams said.
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