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.
I get the point and idea behind the existence of the “most people understand…” argument. A hot dog isn’t actually made from dog. But when it comes to truth vs lies… if you aren’t an entertainer, you just shouldn’t be allowed to lie. And if you are an entertainer, it needs to be beyond obvious in you marketing and such that you are an entertainer. If you channel is called anything news, you are not an entertainer. Google search can be entertaining, but almost no one would say it is entertainment. So there is just no justification for it lieing with impunity.