By Blake Brittain
(Reuters) -Google on Monday asked a Delaware state court to dismiss conservative influencer Robby Starbuck’s allegations that its artificial intelligence systems defamed him by falsely calling him epithets including a “child rapist,” “serial sexual abuser” and “shooter.”
The tech giant told the court that Starbuck purposely misused its AI tools to “hallucinate” the alleged defamatory statements and said his lawsuit “fails to name a single person who was actually misled.”
Starbuck’s attorney Krista Baughman responded in a statement that Google’s argument was “equal parts rank falsehood and victim blaming.”
“The hubris of publishing life-altering lies about an innocent individual and then blaming the individual for those reckless outputs should be deeply concerning to users of Google’s AI,” Baughman said.
Starbuck sued Google last month, claiming its AI chatbots generated and published “outrageously false” information about him, including that he committed spousal abuse, attended the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Starbuck, who is best known for opposing diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, said he had been approached by people who believed some of the false accusations and argued they could lead to increased threats on his life, noting the recent assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Google said that Starbuck’s complaint should be dismissed because he did not argue that any third party saw or believed the alleged defamation, according to a copy of Monday’s filing provided by the company. Google also said Starbuck failed to show that the tech giant acted with the “actual malice” required to defame a public figure.
Starbuck made similar allegations against Meta Platforms in a separate lawsuit in April. Starbuck and Meta settled their dispute in August, after which he advised the company on AI bias.
The Google case is Starbuck v. Google LLC, Superior Court of the State of Delaware, No. N25C-10-211.
For Starbuck: Krista Baughman, John-Paul Deol and Jesse Franklin-Murdock of Dhillon Law Group
For Google: Matthew Macdonald, Ariel Green Anaba and Andrew Cordo of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Read more:
Conservative activist sues Google over AI-generated statements
(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington)
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