{"id":79916,"date":"2023-06-08T11:35:37","date_gmt":"2023-06-08T08:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=79916"},"modified":"2025-09-11T13:46:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T10:46:31","slug":"openai-sued-for-libel-after-chatgpt-accuses-man-of-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/openai-sued-for-libel-after-chatgpt-accuses-man-of-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI sued for libel after ChatGPT accuses man of crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

American radio host Mark Walters has filed a suit against OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, after the chatbot wrongly named him as a defendant in a criminal case. Decrypt reported this, citing the plaintiff’s lawyer John Monroe.<\/p>\n

According to court materials, journalist Fred Reil requested from ChatGPT a brief summary of the precedent-setting embezzlement case The Second Amendment Foundation \u043f\u0440\u043e\u0442\u0438\u0432 \u0420\u043e\u0431\u0435\u0440\u0442\u0430 \u0424\u0435\u0440\u0433\u044e\u0441\u043e\u043d\u0430<\/a>, providing the URL of the document. In the generated response, the bot wrongly named Mark Walters as a defendant, attributing to him charges of fraud and misappropriation for personal use.<\/p>\n

However, in reality the radio host is not a party to the case and has never worked for the mentioned organization.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cOpenAI has libelled my client and fabricated outrageous lies about him,\u201d Monroe said, explaining that filing the complaint was the only way to defend Walters’s honour.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The plaintiff in the original complaint, Alan Gottlieb, also confirmed that ChatGPT’s statement was false.<\/p>\n

Walters is seeking penalties and damages from OpenAI in an unspecified amount.<\/p>\n

Monroe’s lawyer is confident of victory, but not everyone shares his view. Cal Evans, the in-house counsel at Stonehouse Technology Group, noted that, as in most defamation actions, the plaintiff will have to prove the damage.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIn the suit, ‘hallucinations’ are mentioned, but we must understand that this communication is not with a person, but with software that cross-references information from the Internet and conveys it,\u201d Evans said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

AI ‘hallucinations’ refer to cases where it generates incorrect results not supported by real data.<\/p>\n

OpenAI’s disclaimer is posted in the ChatGPT interface. It warns that the chatbot \u201cmay provide inaccurate information about people, places or facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evans believes OpenAI could use this approach to build a defence in court, since ChatGPT draws information from open sources already published on the Internet.<\/p>\n

Earlier Forklog reported that the attorney at the law firm Levidow, Levidow & Oberman faces a penalty for using ChatGPT<\/a> in preparing documents for the client’s case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American radio host Mark Walters filed a suit against OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, after the chatbot wrongly named him as a defendant in a criminal case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[438,1162,1190,26],"class_list":["post-79916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-court-cases","tag-openai","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"16","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79918,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79916\/revisions\/79918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}