Recent news has sparked up debates on whether AI has the capability to commit libel. With breakthroughs in the technology, it is no surprise that AI models like ChatGPT are able to produce content that looks indistinguishable from reality. But is this enough to be considered for trial in a court of law?
Defamation is broadly defined as publishing or verbally saying damaging false statements about someone or something. With the advancement of generative AI, it can easily produce numerous unanswered legal questions. In 2020, AI models have started to produce believable language and conversation that can potentially mislead consumers.
Brian Hood, mayor of Hepburn Shire in Australia, was informed that ChatGPT had named him as having been convicted in a bribery scandal from 20 years ago. While the scandal was real, Hood was the one who went to the authorities and was not charged with a crime.
This raises numerous questions. Who is to be blamed for the false statement- OpenAI, which developed the software? Microsoft, which licensed and deployed it? Should AI be treated as an automated system? Or should it be more like a conversation between two people? In any case, is this statement libelous in nature? Can an AI model exhibit malice? There are yet to be answers for these questions as the technology only recently came about.
Hood’s lawyers have sent a letter to OpenAI asking to take action before the situation escalates. It is uncertain what OpenAI can do, but tech and legal experts are attempting to tackle these issues that have sparked up just recently. With major tech companies introducing AI-powered platforms as the next generation of information retrieval, it is only fair that they take responsiblity for false or damaging statement any system produces.
For now, it is unclear how the situation will unfold. But a reminder stands: with an increasing number of legal cases arise, it is important to be mindful when using AI-based content.
OpenAI is a technology company based in San Francisco and founded in 2015 by Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman and others. OpenAI builds which creates artificial general intelligence for the benefit of humanity for applications in robotics, natural language processing, computer vision, and other fields.
Brian Hood is the mayor of Hepburn Shire in Australia was informed that ChatGPT had named him as having been convicted in a bribery scandal from 20 years ago. The scandal was real and Hood was involved, but he was the one who reported it and was never charged with a crime. Hood’s lawyers have sent a letter to OpenAI asking them to take action before the situation escalates.
