OpenAI, the artificial intelligence research organization, is being sued again, this time in the US, due to its AI language platform ChatGPT. The lawsuit has been filed by a Georgia radio host, Mark Walters, who alleges that he was falsely accused in a conversation between a journalist and the bot. Walters claims that ChatGPT told the journalist that he was being sued for embezzlement, an accusation that has never been made. Although none of what was provided to the journalist by ChatGPT was published, Walters’ lawsuit states that by providing false allegations against him, OpenAI published libellous material.
OpenAI is no stranger to lawsuits, as Australian politician Brian Hood sued the company last April after the chatbot incorrectly identified him as a criminal. This raises questions about how AI systems will be held accountable for providing false information. Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, Internet companies are generally protected from being held legally liable for third-party content hosted on their platforms. However, it is not clear how that applies to AI systems because they use their own systems to generate new information. In this case, UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh believes that while libel cases related to AI are legally viable, Walters may not have given OpenAI a chance to fix the mistake and that there were no actual damages involved.
In conclusion, while it seems likely that AI companies will be held accountable for false information in the future, this particular case may be an exception. As for OpenAI, it has yet to comment on the lawsuit and the accusations against its AI language platform ChatGPT.
