If you say something untruthful, you could be sued for defamation. Yes, you, ChatGPT. I’m Amy E. Feldman.
ChatGPT identified Brian Hood as a man who served jail time for bribery. In fact, though, Mr. Hood was the whistleblower who alerted authorities to the bribery scheme. He wrote a letter to OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT, telling them if they didn’t correct the mistake, he’d sue for defamation, which, if filed, would make it the first case brought against the language processing tool.
It would join a newly emerging, but growing category of lawsuits brought on the basis of automated technology, like when self-driving cars crash. In those cases, both the owners of the car and the creators of the technology are held liable if it’s not programmed or used correctly. We will see how liability is apportioned in the ChatGPT case, but given that OpenAI says their product can pass the bar exam, maybe we should ask it who would win.
Leave a Reply