A radio talk show host has filed what’s thought to be the first defamation lawsuit against artificial intelligence, alleging that Open AI’s ChatGPT produced a “hallucination” accusing him of involvement in a federal lawsuit over embezzlement charges.
Mark Walters filed a state complaint against OpenAI in the Superior Court of Gwinnett County in Georgia this month, asking for a jury trial to assess damages after ChatGPT produced a false complaint to a journalist about the radio host.
The faux lawsuit claimed that Mr. Walters, the CEO of CCW Broadcast Media, worked for a gun rights group as treasurer and embezzled funds.
Those allegations are false, according to the lawsuit filed by Mr. Walters, who discusses gun issues on his broadcast.
“ChatGPT’s allegations concerning Walters were false and malicious, expressed in print, writing, pictures or signs, tending to injure Walter’s reputation and exposing him to public hatred, contempt or ridicule,” his lawsuit reads.
Allen Gottlieb, founder of the pro-gun lobby Second Amendment Foundation, denied the ChatGPT-generated article.
“Mark Walters never worked for SAF. The whole AI article is made up of lies,” Mr. Gottlieb told The Washington Times in an email.
A lawyer for Mr. Walters said the unprecedented case against ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence, shouldn’t affect standard defamation law.
“I think the court will just have to apply general libel law principles. It may be the first defamation case against AI, but defamation is defamation,” said John Monroe, Mr. Walters’ attorney.
A spokesperson for OpenAI did not immediately respond.
Legal scholars have split on whether the bots should be sued for defamation or under product liability, given it’s a machine — not a person — spreading the false, hurtful information about people.
The issue arose when an Australian mayor threatened to sue the AI company this year over providing false news reports that he was guilty of a foreign bribery scandal.
“It’s definitely unchartered waters,” Catherine Sharkey, a professor at New York University School of Law, previously told The Washington Times. “You have people interacting with machines. That is very new. How does publication work in that framework?”
Defamation occurs when false information is published about another person or business that damages the person or business’s reputation.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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