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Man Sues ChatGPT for Slander

Jun 11, 2023

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, ChatGPT and OpenAI are being sued after the chatbot falsely identified a man as related to an ongoing criminal case involving a pro-gun foundation and the embezzlement of funds.

According to Cybernews, a journalist from Washington state was covering said criminal case, and asked ChatGPT for a summary of the lawsuit. In response, the chatbot falsely identified Mark Walters as the Chief Financial Officer of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), a pro-gun group in Washington state. It also named Walters as the defendant in the case, accused of embezzling funds and defrauding the activist foundation, and claims he held the position of CFO for over a decade.

Walters was made aware of the false allegations after the journalist contacted him to fact-check the story. He then filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI of negligence and libel. “OAI is aware that ChatGPT sometimes makes up facts and refers to this phenomenon as a ‘hallucination,’” the filing states.

This case is obviously very worrying since Walters has nothing to do with the case and even lives on the other side of the country from it. What’s more disturbing is that nothing related to Walters’ name or anything close to his name is ever mentioned in any of the legal briefs or court filings associated with the so-called criminal case.

Ever since it was launched ChatGPT has been facing scrutiny over false information, how it processes data, and its questionable privacy practices.

According to Cybernews, some EU nations have launched investigations into possible privacy violations and data leaks related to the chatbot. OpenAI’s founder and CEO Sam Altman has been discussing privacy concerns and AI regulations in Europe and even threatened to pull ChatGPT out of the European market.

Amidst lawsuits and threats, ChatGPT recently raised its number of estimated users from 100 million this January to over 800 million this June, with no signs of slowing down any time soon.