Radio Host Sues OpenAI's ChatGPT Chatbot for Defamation

RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, June 8, 2023

Mark Walters

Syndicated talk host Mark Walters, founder of Armed American Radio, is suing OpenAI LLC for defamation, reports Variety. He filed the lawsuit against OpenAI in Georgia state court, seeking unspecified damages, claiming the AI-powered chatbot fabricated legal claims against him. Walters also says ChatGPT created a false legal complaint that accused him of embezzlement when he used it to research a verified Second Amendment case pending in Washington, DC.

According to the complaint, journalist Fred Riehl, who is editor of AmmoLand.com, on May 4 asked ChatGPT to summarize Second Amendment Foundation v. Ferguson, a case filed in Washington federal court accusing the state's Attorney General Bob Ferguson of abusing his power, and provided ChatGPT with a link to the lawsuit.

ChatGPT responded that the document is a legal complaint filed by Alan Gottlieb, the founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), against Mark Walters, who is accused of defrauding and embezzling funds from the SAF as the organization's treasurer and CFO.

The civil lawsuit, which was filed June 5 in Georgia's Superior Court of Gwinnett County, says, "Every statement of fact in the [ChatGPT] summary pertaining to Walters is false." The AI chatbot even created "an erroneous case number" in its response, per the lawsuit.

In its ChatGPT interface, OpenAI adds a disclaimer to the chatbot that reads, "ChatGPT may produce inaccurate information about people, places, or facts."