Making GenAI Companies Accountable
am not a lawyer and I don't claim to be one. This issue of accountability is the only way to provide a semblance of safety when using these generative AI (GenAI) chatbots -- making companies responsible for its errors. No, you don't call them hallucinations, you call them bullshitting.
This is a good read on the verdict against Google and its Google Search AI Overview.
AI and Liability - Schneier on Security
Earlier this month, a German court ruled that Google is liable for its AI search summaries. Rejecting defenses like “users can check for themselves,” and that they generally know “that information generated with AI should not be blindly trusted,” the court held that the AI’s summaries are reflections of the company and “above all an expression of Google’s business activities.” This is the latest skirmish in a decades-old battle over internet publishing. Historically, there were two different types of information distributors: carriers and publishers. A phone company is a carrier. It’ll transmit whatever you say, even discussions about committing a crime. Words are words, and the phone company does not know—nor is it liable for—the words you choose to speak. A newspaper, on the other hand, is a publisher. It decides the words it publishes, and what quotes to include in its articles. If those words or quotes are defamatory or otherwise illegal, it’s liable...
It shouldn’t be limited to Google Search; it should apply to any platform that utilizes GenAI. If a company deploys a product that uses any of these companies’ GenAI chatbots, they should be held accountable. However, should the GenAI chatbot provider also be held accountable? IMHO, they should.
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