Conservative activist sues Google over AI-generated statements

Robby Starbuck, a conservative activist, claimed that Google’s artificial intelligence systems gave him “outrageously false” information.

In response to user queries and defamatory statements made by millions of users, Starbuck claimed in the lawsuit filed in Delaware state court on Wednesday that Google’s AI systems falsely called him a “child rapist,” “serial sexual abuser,” and “shooter” in response to user queries.

Most of the allegations, according to Google spokesman Jose Castaneda, were related to erroneous “hallucinations” from the Bard large language model, which the company worked to address in 2023.

According to Castaneda, “Hallucinations are a well-known issue for all LLMs, which we disclose and work hard to minimize.” However, it is well known that you can prompt a chatbot to say something offensive when you’re creative enough.

Starbuck is most known for its opposition to initiatives promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.

In a statement regarding the lawsuit, he said, “Noone should ever experience this, regardless of their political beliefs.” “It is now for everyone to demand unbiased, transparent AI that won’t harm people.”

In a separate lawsuit filed in April, Starbuck alleges Meta Platforms. In accordance with the settlement, Starbuck and Meta reached a resolution in August, and the two companies received advice on AI issues.

In accordance with the complaint from Wednesday, Starbuck discovered in December 2023 that Bard had fabricated ties to white nationalist Richard Spencer. According to the lawsuit, Bard cited fabricated sources and that Google omitted the statements after Starbuck contacted the business.

According to Starbuck’s lawsuit, the Google-owned Gemma chatbot allegedly fabricated sexual assault allegations against him in August using fictitious sources. Starbuck alleges that the chatbot allegedly told him, among other things, that he had allegedly been a victim of spousal abuse, that he had been a witness to the Capitol riots on January 6, that he had been a member of, and that he had also been alleged in the Jeffrey Epstein files.

According to Starbuck, people have contacted him about believing some of the falsehoods, which could increase the threat to his life, given the recent assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Starbuck requested at least $ 15 million in damages from the court.

The Starbuck lawsuit comes as a result of growing concerns that misinformation can be spread easily as a result of AI-generated content becoming simple to produce. According to Al Jazeera, Google’s VEO3 AI video maker made it possible for users to create fabricated videos of news events.