Google has formally submitted a motion seeking dismissal of a defamation lawsuit initiated by Robby Starbuck, an activist known for his outspoken criticism of corporate diversity initiatives. Starbuck alleges that Google’s artificial intelligence system falsely generated and publicly associated his name with allegations of sexual assault as well as with an individual identified as a white nationalist. In his view, these false and damaging associations have not only misrepresented his identity but also severely harmed his personal and professional reputation.
This legal confrontation with Google comes on the heels of a nearly identical dispute Starbuck lodged against another major technology company, Meta Platforms. In that earlier case, he claimed that Meta’s AI software had inaccurately stated that he was a participant in the January 6th insurrection at the United States Capitol. However, unlike Google’s current strategy, Meta chose to resolve its dispute outside the courtroom. According to a report from *The Wall Street Journal*, Meta reached a settlement agreement with Starbuck in August and subsequently brought him on as a consultant tasked with advising the company on matters related to perceived ideological and political bias within its AI chatbot systems.
The same *Journal* report further observed that, as of just last month, no federal or state court in the United States had yet granted monetary damages to any plaintiff in a defamation case stemming from statements—or more precisely, AI-generated outputs—produced by an artificial intelligence chatbot. This observation underscores the legal novelty of such cases and highlights the uncertainty surrounding accountability when defamatory or misleading content originates from machine-generated language models.
In his current filing against Google, Starbuck seeks a total of fifteen million dollars in compensatory damages. The tech giant, however, has responded forcefully, contending in its legal pleadings that Starbuck’s allegations reflect nothing more than his own misuse of internal developer tools designed for testing AI capabilities. According to Google, such actions induced the system to produce what AI researchers often describe as “hallucinations” — seemingly factual but fabricated statements unmoored from any genuine data source. The corporation further argues that Starbuck has failed to specify exactly what prompts or queries he entered into the system to trigger these alleged results, nor has he identified any individual or audience member who was misinformed or influenced by the statements at issue. At the time of publication, Starbuck had not provided a response to external requests for comment regarding Google’s claims or its motion to dismiss.
While Google’s legal position currently emphasizes its intent to contest the matter through judicial proceedings, observers note that the company could, in the future, adopt a strategy more akin to Meta’s earlier settlement approach should circumstances evolve. For the present moment, however, Google appears determined to challenge the accusations directly in court, signaling a broader willingness to defend the parameters of AI responsibility and the limits of defamation law in an era increasingly dominated by algorithmic authorship and automated information dissemination.
Sourse: https://www.theverge.com/news/822636/google-robby-starbuck-defamation-lawsuit-ai-chatbot
