Syndicated host Mark Walters, the founder of Armed American Radio, has filed a defamation lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that the company’s AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT, fabricated false legal claims against him. This is believed to be the first defamation complaint related to ChatGPT, which was introduced in November 2022.
According to the lawsuit filed in Georgia’s Superior Court of Gwinnett County, journalist Fred Riehl asked ChatGPT to summarize a case called Second Amendment Foundation v. Ferguson, which involved accusations against Washington’s Attorney General Bob Ferguson. Riehl provided a link to the case but did not know that ChatGPT cannot access URLs, so he received a completely made-up story.
In its fabricated response, ChatGPT falsely claimed that the case was a legal complaint filed by Alan Gottlieb, the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, against Mark Walters. The AI chatbot even provided an erroneous case number, saying that Walters, “misappropriated funds for personal expenses without authorization or reimbursement, manipulated financial records and bank statements to conceal his activities, and failed to provide accurately and timely financial reports.”
At no point in the actual Second Amendment Foundation v. Ferguson filing is Mark Walters mentioned.
Walters asserts that every statement regarding him in ChatGPT’s response is libelous and malicious, and embezzlement accusations are leading to damage to his reputation and exposing him to public contempt.
OpenAI has yet to comment on Walters’ lawsuit. ChatGPT does give users a disclaimer warning about potential inaccuracies, misleading information, and offensive or biased content. The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages.
The geeks who create these digital monsters must be held to account, not just the companies that employ them. This is a prima facie, slam dunk, mic drop case of negligence causing harm and the gentlemen has every right (and responsibility) to test it’s limits in the courts.
To the commenter who told Mark to get a life, I would guess that his response would be totally different of the AI attacked his character and lied about him.
clout chaser. He’s a desperate, unknown radio host looking for a boost because he’s pigeonholed himself into a ridiculous talk format with the one note of “second amendment” bs. Now he’s filed a frivolous lawsuit against a company whose product, ironically, could help him change directions for his program and actually help him generate GOOD content WORTH listening to. lol He may be “syndicated” but lord knows when you’re syndicated purely because you had a couple of more popular friends who hoisted you up by your belt because you were unable to grow your own audience… how happy can you truly be with your life lol you end up engaging in nonsense like this for attention. Retire, Mark. The world is waiting.
Get a life, Mark.