--- title: "OpenAI Threatened With Lawsuit Over ChatGPT Defamation" description: "An Australian mayor may sue OpenAI over ChatGPT-generated defamation, after the AI chatbot told users that he was arrested for a crime he didn't commit." date: "2023-04-08" modified: "2023-04-08" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-lawsuit-chatgpt-defamation" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "chatbots" - "chatgpt" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" --- # OpenAI Threatened With Lawsuit Over ChatGPT Defamation ![An Australian mayor may sue OpenAI over ChatGPT-generated defamation, after the AI chatbot told users that he was arrested for a crime he didn't commit.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* For the first time, OpenAI may face a lawsuit over [ChatGPT-generated defamation](). The accuser? An Australian mayor named Brian Hood, who [according to *Reuters*]() is peeved about the fact that ChatGPT wrongfully identified him as a guilty party in a "foreign bribery scandal involving a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia in the early 2000s," apparently claiming that Hood had even served prison time for his so-called crime. Hood *was* involved in the scandal — but as the [*whistleblower*](), not the crime-doer. Yeah, we'd be pissed, too. Per *Reuters*, Hood's lawyers sent a "letter of concern" to OpenAI back on March 21 demanding that the company fix its chatbot's error within 28 days. If they don't, Hood says he's suing. "It would potentially be a landmark moment in the sense that it's applying this defamation law to a new area of artificial intelligence and publication in the IT space," James Naughton, a partner at Hood's law firm Gordon Legal, told *Reuters.* "He's an elected official, his reputation is central to his role," he continued. "It makes a difference to him if people in his community are accessing this material." It's a fascinating case, and if Hood does sue, it'll be interesting to see how the mayor's argument holds up in court. ChatGPT and similar large language model-powered bots make things up all the time — they're predictive devices, not analytical ones, and though they do sometimes get their predictions right, they're also often wrong. And while OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Bard, and Microsoft's OpenAI-powered Bing Chat — the three most prominent chatbots currently on the market — all offer this-stuff-might-be-wrong-disclaimers, a lot of people out there still use these machines like fact-finding search engines; after all, Google and Bing *are* the world's foremost search engines, and OpenAI has already integrated its tech into an [AI grade school tutor](). And elsewhere, even when it's talking about real people and events, ChatGPT frequently fails to provide [legitimate citations]() — or any citations at all. Instead, it just spits out answers with confidence, regardless of whether those answers are correct or not. "It's very difficult for somebody to look behind that to say 'how does the algorithm come up with that answer?'" Naughton told *Reuters*. "It's very opaque." As this would be the first case of its kind, there's no way to really tell how it'll shake out. Questions remain. If a user were to overtly use ChatGPT as a tool of disinformation — for example, prompting the machine to "write a bio about Australian mayor Brian Hood, including a paragraph about how he was arrested for bribery" — that would be one thing. If ChatGPT, an unregulated technology, is spitting this stuff out *on its* *own*, though? Hood might just have a leg to stand on. **More on ChatGPT defamation:** [*ChatGPT Will Gladly Spit out Defamation, as Long as You Ask for It in a Foreign Language*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()