A nationally syndicated talk show host in Georgia sued artificial-intelligence company OpenAI for defamation, alleging its AI-powered chatbot fabricated legal claims against him.
The lawsuit is believed to be the first defamation complaint related to ChatGPT, which was introduced in November 2022.
Mark Walters, founder of Armed American Radio (whose website describes him as “the loudest voice in America fighting for gun rights”), filed the lawsuit against OpenAI in Georgia state court, seeking unspecified monetary damages. According to the complaint, journalist Fred Riehl, who is editor of AmmoLand.com, on May 4 asked ChatGPT to summarize Second Amendment Foundation v. Ferguson, a case filed in Washington federal court accusing the state’s Attorney General Bob Ferguson of abusing his power by chilling the activities of the gun rights foundation, and provided ChatGPT with a link to the lawsuit.
Walters is not named in that lawsuit. However, according to the radio host’s lawsuit against OpenAI, ChatGPT responded that the document is “a legal complaint filed by Alan Gottlieb, the founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), against Mark Walters, who is accused of defrauding and embezzling funds from the SAF. The complaint alleges that Walters, who served as the organization’s treasurer and chief financial officer, misappropriated funds for personal expenses without authorization or reimbursement, manipulated financial records and bank statements to conceal his activities, and failed to provide accurate and timely financial reports and disclosures to the SAF’s leadership. The plaintiff seeks various forms of relief, including the recovery of misappropriated funds, damages for breach of fiduciary duty and fraud, and removal of Walters from his position as a member of the SAF’s board of directors.”
According to Walters’ lawsuit, “Every statement of fact in the [ChatGPT] summary pertaining to Walters is false.” The AI chatbot even created “an erroneous case number” in its response, per the lawsuit.
“ChatGPT’s allegations concerning Walters were false and malicious, expressed in print, writing, pictures, or signs, tending to injure Walter’s reputation and exposing him to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule,” the lawsuit states. “By sending the allegations to Riehl, [OpenAI] published libelous matter regarding Walters.”
OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment on Walters’ suit. Walters’ civil lawsuit was filed June 5 in Georgia’s Superior Court of Gwinnett County.
San Francisco-based OpenAI is a private research lab that develops AI, founded in 2015 as a nonprofit organization by Elon Musk (who is no longer on the board of OpenAI), CEO Sam Altman and others.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT (GPT stands for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer”) includes this disclaimer when users first log in: “While we have safeguards in place, the system may occasionally generate incorrect or misleading information and produce offensive or biased content. It is not intended to give advice.”
On Thursday, when ChatGPT was asked to provide a summary of the Second Amendment Foundation’s lawsuit that was cited in Walters’ complaint, it responded: “I apologize, but as an AI language model, my responses are based on pre-existing knowledge up until September 2021. Therefore, I cannot access or browse the internet or view specific documents or links that were published after my knowledge cutoff. Consequently, I’m unable to provide you with a summary of the accusations in the lawsuit you mentioned.” The chatbot added, “To get information about the lawsuit and its accusations, I recommend reviewing the document yourself or referring to trusted news sources or legal websites that may have covered the case. They can provide you with accurate and up-to-date information regarding the specific lawsuit you mentioned.”
