Conservative activist Robby Starbuck has filed a $15 million defamation lawsuit against Google in Delaware Superior Court, claiming the tech giant's AI search tools falsely linked him to sexual assault allegations and white nationalist Richard Spencer. It's his second major AI defamation case this year, following a settled dispute with Meta that secured him an advisory role at the company. The case tests uncharted legal waters where no U.S. court has yet awarded damages for AI chatbot defamation.
The battle over AI accountability just got more expensive. Robby Starbuck, the conservative activist who's made headlines targeting corporate diversity programs, is taking his fight against algorithmic defamation straight to Google's doorstep with a $15 million lawsuit filed in Delaware Superior Court.
This isn't Starbuck's first rodeo with Big Tech's AI problems. Earlier this year, he sued Meta over similar issues, claiming the company's AI chatbot falsely stated he participated in the January 6th Capitol attack and had been arrested for a misdemeanor. That case didn't drag through the courts - instead, it ended with Meta hiring Starbuck as an advisor to combat "ideological and political bias" in its chatbot, part of what reporters dubbed the company's broader effort to appease conservative critics.
Now Starbuck's targeting Google, alleging the search giant's AI tools falsely connected him to sexual assault allegations and white nationalist Richard Spencer. The timing couldn't be more pointed - as AI becomes central to how people find information, these cases are testing whether tech companies can be held liable for what their algorithms generate.
Google's response was measured but telling. "We will review the complaint when we receive it," spokesperson José Castañeda told The Verge. But he was quick to add context: "Most of these claims relate to hallucinations in Bard that we addressed in 2023. Hallucinations are a well known issue for all LLMs, which we disclose and work hard to minimize. But as everyone knows, if you're creative enough, you can prompt a chatbot to say something misleading."
The legal landscape here is practically virgin territory. As The Wall Street Journal noted, no U.S. court has awarded damages in a defamation suit involving an AI chatbot. The closest precedent came when conservative radio host Mark Walters sued OpenAI in 2023, claiming ChatGPT defamed him by linking him to fraud and embezzlement accusations. The court sided with , ruling that Walters failed to prove "actual malice" - a high bar for public figures in defamation cases.