False information that damages. Since April 28, Meta has been attacked by a defamation complaint filed by Robby Starbuck, American filmmaker, journalist and activist. This, due to its assistant goal AI. According to the complaint, the tool “transmits and continues to disseminate obviously false and defamatory statements that erroneously accuse Starbuck of having participated in the disturbances of the Capitol on January 6 and having been arrested for a minor crime.”
However, the activist was thousands of kilometers from Washington on January 6, 2021. He was at home in Tennessee. As indicated by the Wall Street Journal, Robby Starbuck discovered that the false goal statements AI in this regard last summer, when he carried out an online campaign to encourage the manufacturer Harley-Davidson to modify their policies in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
A Harley concessionaire then retaliates by Publishing, on X, a screenshot that is supposed to represent a response from the goal assistant, indicating that the filmmaker was present during the Capitole assault, but also that he was linked to the Conspirator Qanon movement.
Death threats
Since then, Robby Starbuck has used Elon Musk’s social network to ask the leaders’ goal, including his CEO Mark Zuckerberg, to eliminate this false information. His lawyer also sent a formal warning letter to the Californian group. If the company responded by ensuring “taking the claims contained in its letter” and conducting an investigation on this subject, that has not changed anything.
“Even after having recognized the official Starbuck application in August 2024, the goal allowed to continue defaming it for months, ending expanding the false history to include accusations made from scratch, such as the negationism of the Holocaust and the statements that he could not raise his own children,” the complaint said.
Due to this false information, Robby Starbuck and his family received death threats. They also affected their career and made it lose crucial commercial opportunities.
“If Meta wants to find an agreement, you must commit to make long -term changes to protect everyone against the defamation induced by AI,” he said, hoping to obtain more than five million dollars in damages with his legal actions.
In fact, the activist is not the only one who wants the companies to be responsible for false and harmful information disseminated by their tools. In March, a Norwegian, for example, filed a complaint against Operai after Chatgpt said he had killed two of his children and trying to kill the third.
In the case of Robby Starbuck, goal AI made it more difficult for the search for information about it in April. “I’m sorry, I can’t help you at this time,” said the applications assistant to the complaint. However, the vocal function of the tool continues to generate false information about the activist, affirming in particular that he had declared himself guilty of public disorder during the assault of the Capitol.
Given this complaint, Meta defended himself by ensuring that he has published updates “in the context of our continuous efforts to improve our models.” “We will continue to do so,” added the company.
Source: BFM TV
