Google to challenge German ruling saying it is liable for AI-generated false claims

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS, June 12 (Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google will appeal a German court ruling which said it is legally liable for false claims appearing in AI Overviews, the U.S. tech company said on Friday, in a case that will likely impact other artificial intelligence developers.

The challenge came after a Munich court issued a landmark judgment against Google’s AI-generated summaries that appear above traditional search engine results, saying that AI Overviews is the company’s own content.

“This case focuses on specific and narrow errors, not the foundational way AI Overviews displays web content. We disagree with the ruling and plan to appeal,” a Google spokesperson said in an email.

The tech giant said the overwhelming majority of AI Overviews is accurate although there could be cases where the summaries miss context or misinterpret web content as is the case with all search features.

Google said it takes swift actions against violations of its policies for AI Overviews.

The case before the court was brought by two German publishers who said AI Overviews falsely linked them to scams and dubious business practices.

Google’s integration of AI into its online search results has sparked criticism from publishers and content providers, which said this has negatively affected their traffic, readership and revenue. Antitrust regulators are also looking into the issue.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Inti Landauro, Louise Heavens and Susan Fenton)