A court in Germany found that Google was responsible for what its chatbots say in search summaries. This is the accountability we need

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.

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