A German court has ruled that Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) flagship subsidiary Google can be held liable for false information generated by its artificial intelligence search summaries, marking a potentially significant development for AI companies operating online.
The Munich Regional Court issued a preliminary ruling against Google, finding that the company bears responsibility for defamatory statements produced by its AI Overviews feature. Consequently, the court ordered Google to prevent the spread of inaccurate claims generated through the tool.
The case arose after two publishers discovered that Google’s AI-generated summaries linked them to alleged scams, questionable business practices and subscription fraud schemes. According to court filings, the summaries made those associations despite a lack of supporting evidence.
Earlier this year, the affected companies sent Google a cease-and-desist letter demanding the removal of the claims. However, the company rejected liability and argued that users receive warnings stating AI-generated information may contain mistakes and should be independently verified.
The court disagreed with that position.
Judges found that Google’s AI system combined information from unrelated companies with data connected to the plaintiffs. Consequently, the technology generated allegations that did not appear in any of the source material displayed in search results.
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