Potentially impacting all AI search engines and chatbots known to poorly paraphrase source links, a German court has ruled that Google is liable for false statements in AI Overviews.
The ruling came in a case flagged by The Decoder, where two publishers found that Google’s AI Overviews incorrectly linked them to scams and other sketchy business practices. After smearing publishers by making affirmative statements like “Yes, [it] is known for dubious business practices and is often perceived as a scam,” Google failed to correct the misleading output, even after the publishers sent a cease-and-desist letter earlier this year.
Google tried the usual arguments to shield itself from liability for false statements in AI Overviews, such as arguing that most users understand that AI outputs aren’t always accurate and must be verified.
This is clearly a reasonable line to draw. This is not content created by others. It’s your robot. Fix your shit.
Saying “I slapped a disclaimer on my libelous robot that says that it may generate libel” doesn’t grant you the right to be libelous.
Yeah it’s not a landmark ruling by any means, it conforms to precedents and follows common sense. Content creators are responsible for what they create.
The clickbait headline tying the author’s quote to the ruling was journalistically unprofessional - but headlines are usually written by editors not writers.