ChatGPT maker OpenAI is facing a defamation suit from a man seeking damages over statements it delivered to a journalist. The suit says the AI platform falsely claimed he'd been accused of embezzling money from a gun rights group.
Georgia resident Mark Walters filed the claim in Gwinnett County Court earlier this week. You can read a copy of Walters' complaint here [PDF]. He alleges the chatbot is guilty of libel "per se," meaning a statement it made is likely to damage Walters' reputation.
"While research and development of AI is worthwhile, it is irresponsible to unleash a system on the public that is known to make up 'facts' about people," his attorney John Monroe told The Register
According to the complaint, a journalist named Fred Riehl, while he was reporting on a court case, asked ChatGPT for a summary of accusations in a complaint, and provided ChatGPT with the URL of the real complaint for reference. (Here's the actual case [PDF] the reporter was trying to save time on reading for those curious.)
What makes the situation even odder is that the case Riehl was reporting on was actually filed by a group of several gun rights groups against Washington's Attorney General's office (accusing officials of "unconstitutional retaliation", among other things, while investigating the groups and their members) and had nothing at all to do with financial accounting claims.
When Riehl asked for a summary, instead of returning accurate information, or so the case alleges, ChatGPT...
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