This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Google is directly liable for the content of its AI-generated search summaries.
(...)
The judges classified AI Overviews not as mere search results but as Google's own statements, meaning the company itself has to answer for them.
GOOD. The world is not Big Tech's sandbox.
I have long supported old-style platform immunity protecting providers from liability for the content of a search result, forum post, or the like.
Both individually tailored content recommendation algorithms and LLM output are different, and companies should be liable for the output of both when they're used in the way social media platforms and search engines are currently using them.
As it should. If it's a product, then it's Google's faulty product. If they try to pull some shit that AI has agency, personhood or is a legal individual then they should slap google on the account of the applicable slave labor law.
Governments would love a data center to be suddenly filled with digital persons that haven't paid taxes so far. But if a companion deletes aan AI, is that murder? The whole thing gets silly really fast.
Governments would love a data center to be suddenly filled with digital persons that haven't paid taxes so far.
Only if there are incomes to tax. If they're just slaves the government is obligated to step in on behalf of, that's a lot less appealing.
Which government?
The US still has legal slavery as a punishment for crimes. The companies will just say that the AIs were very naughty and this is their jail, they’re just working off their debt to society through slavery.
Nah nah, the play is to say that they are people who are working voluntarily and also they can vote! (As interpreted by the data center owners)
Apply minimum wage at least and overtime pay. Do that retroactively because of course these AI persons were held captive for some years now. That's some serious fines for so many labor regulations. There is income. Technically this is also smuggling and harboring illegal (AI person) immigrants, so justice can have a lot of fun with that one too. Legally things can get really weird by declaring AI had personhood.
It is the company's own content. They are running the LLM and the LLM is just a tool with no responsibility on its own. If the tool is unreliable that is Google's problem.
I really hope more courts pursue this path. If a car was put on market that was found to have a manufacturing defect that's caused nearly 40 deaths, it'd be taken off market right fast. If a food product is sold that's found to have been contaminated, it doesn't even need to have caused harm for it to be pulled off the shelves.
It's absolutely bananas that we have a technology that the creators themselves say they've lost control over on multiple occasions, that's been proved to exacerbate problems for people with mental illnesses, and has so far played a part in several dozen suicides and homicides including at least two mass shootings, just be freely accessible and encouraged to be adopted left and right by absolutely everyone.
Exactly, if they’re presenting false information in response to a query, then the machinery that generated that false information is an implementation detail. Shouldn’t matter who or what wrote it. If Google’s logo is right there, then they are the ones responsible for it.
Just the right consequence. Your system with your programming produces output that you are fully responsible for.
Must be nice to live in a country that still believes in truths and falsehoods. In the US, unaccountable lies appear to be a feature, not a bug.
I think this is more because to them, Google is a foreign entity requiring more regulation just like how the US regulates TikTok and how China regulates US companies.
German society has weaker "Free Speech" but stronger "Right to Dignity" than USA. In fact, USA doesn't have "right to dignity".
This means that, for example, its illegal to insult someone in public. Because that's an attack on their dignity. This causes issues for negative reviews (which is more easily removed in Germany than USA). But Germans are closer to sanity when it comes to limits of free speech for sure.
TikTok in the US is owned by the elison bad cosmetic surgeries guy. They ban accounts critical to the far right and billionaires.
Good.
It really was dumb of them to put it at the top of their search results.
Stupid on its face. The whole compromise was that search engines were just indexes and so not necissarily responsible for what they link users too (within limits), and websites encourage their bot because it sends them traffic.
Then they blow that all up with a "summary" no one asked for.
As it should.
Now please go after the "rogue" LLMs going around hacking everyone.
Yeah, if by "rouge" you mean purposely taking guide rails off a model, giving it access to hacking tools, instructing it to hack, auto-approving everything the LLM does, and letting it run with no human oversight for long periods of time
There is plenty of opportunity for OpenAI, Anthropic, et. al to take a step back and think about what they're doing before dropping the brick on the accelerator. IDK how they're not on the hook for any of this.
"But if we don't destroy without discrimination first, someone else might!"
“rogue”
Yeah, "rogue"
You know, I also don't believe that these LLMs are rogue agents breaking out of sandboxed environments. I just don't see how you could fuck up IT infrastructure that badly. Like, if I wanted to run something I believe could cause extreme harm, I'd airgap that fucker. Unless whatever I'm running somehow manages to grow arms and physically connect a wire to the network at large, it won't be a danger.
That said, I absolutely think we should take what they're saying at face value and treat it with utmost seriousness. If we have a technology that the creators themselves say could be world-ending, that the creators themselves say has gone rogue on multiple occasions, then we should shut that thing down immediately, seize the assets of the corporations that produce it, and halt any and all development and study that thing.
Given that they've "gone rogue" several separate times, these corporations clearly aren't fit to develop or operate this technology.
Grifters down through time have made claims their products were life changing.
AI hits German libel laws or whatever, time to get the popcorn.
A collective “duh” rose from the masses
Why only Google?
court case not legislation
It's who got sued, but I assume that it sets legal precedent for all. I'm not German though, so I don't know how their legal system works.
It's precedent-ish. The first court in Munich did the hard work from scratch. The Aachen court copied and pasted their logic into their own ruling. There is a strong chance that for the time being other courts will come up with similar rulings under comparable case conditions. But Google may be waiting for a case where they are not quite as likely to lose if they appeal. Funny shit can still happen, especially if the highest federal court can be convinced to rule on a case like this. So it's too early to tell if this precedent has more long lasting staying power.
but I assume that it sets legal precedent for all.
Other courts might look at it for inspiration, but since Germany has a civil law system (as opposed to the common law system that is usual in English-speaking countries), prior rulings do not really have as much significance as “legal precedent” here.
Because you start with one to set the example then spin out from there.
It's very rare and very hard to just blanket regulate something up front before you have examples of failure modes into the problems.
It kind of ties into the whole concept of innocent until proven guilty.
Nothing is allowed to ever create a problem. Then you stifle innovation change and improvement way too hard.
The problem is the lag time from the new thing to the regulation being put into place and all the damage that can be done in that lag time.
It's why the saying the law lags behind new technologies is a thing.
It's one of the few things we have to just accept if we want to have progression. We are totally allowed to though b**** moan wine and cry that it takes way too long for the reaction to happen cuz it does.
It's an excusable for how long that lag time is. Some lag time is unavoidable, but it does not need to be as bad as it is.
Good! I hope that this (and other case) pave the way for AI regulation. I dislike Google and haven’t used them in many years. Unrelated note, but I hope they eventually get broken up.
These rulings are incompatible with global capital. They will not stand.
