Canadian fiddler sues Google after AI Overview claimed he was a sex offender

chrisjj

> Google should not have lesser liability because the defamatory statements were published by software that Google created and controls. Therein lies the rub. Google does not control what its parrot spouts. No-one does.

deeponey

Are they going to try to make a "we're just a platform, don't shoot the messenger" section 230 argument (not sure what the equivalent in Canada is) for the AI overviews they generate? Seems like a bridge too far. Really hopeful the courts will side with Ashley MacIsaac here, and set some sane precedent.

1attice

This is especially troubling from a sociological perspective, as it points to how AIs turn malice into false history. Ashley MacIsaac made waves in the nineties for being openly gay, and he paid his dues for years. I vividly recall being around a barroom table in the late nineties, listening to this specific slander. We knew it was slander though, because there was no evidence. We had no machine yet to confabulate it. This is what we anglos do to our men who prefer men. We did it with Wilde, and with Turing, and we did it with MacIsaac, and we are doing it even harder in 2026 than in 1996, because what we called freedom is now called "woke", and what was called dictatorship is now called "freedom". And you're next, dear reader.

rdsnsca

US Freedom of speech will not work in Canadian courts, Google will have to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, what the AI said is true. If they are smart they will settle out of court.