Google has filed a motion to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought by Robby Starbuck, an activist known for his opposition to corporate diversity initiatives. Starbuck alleges that the company’s artificial intelligence wrongfully linked him to accusations of sexual assault and white nationalism.
In his lawsuit, Starbuck is seeking a whopping $15 million in damages. However, Google’s response asserts that his claims stem from a “misuse of developer tools,” suggesting that Starbuck manipulated the AI to generate misleading outputs. The tech giant points out that he hasn’t disclosed the specific prompts he used or identified anyone who may have been genuinely misled by the alleged associations. As of now, Starbuck has not responded to requests for comment on the situation.
While Google could potentially follow a path similar to that of Meta in handling these allegations, it has opted to contest them in court—for the time being, at least.
