Who Pays When A.I. Is Wrong?

New court cases seek to define content created by artificial intelligence as defamatory — a novel concept that has captivated some legal experts.

Sales representatives for Wolf River Electric, a solar contractor in Minnesota, noticed an unusual uptick in canceled contracts late last year. When they pressed the former customers for an explanation, the answers left them floored.

The clients said they had bailed after learning from Google searches that the company settled a lawsuit with the state attorney general over deceptive sales practices. But the company had never been sued by the government, let alone settled a case involving such claims.

Confusion became concern when Wolf River executives checked for themselves. Search results that Gemini, Google’s artificial intelligence technology, delivered at the top of the page included the falsehoods. And mentions of a legal settlement populated automatically when they typed “Wolf River Electric” in the search box.