Casey NewtonSuing ChatGPT for defamation feels like suing a calculator for bank fraud
DuncanWatson@caseynewton Feels like sueing a calculator company for failing to perform basic math properly in a hard to detect manner.
Louis Ingenthron@DuncanWatson @caseynewton On the contrary. The calculator in this analogy does math perfectly.
Just because people put in bad input or don't like the results doesn't mean it's wrong.
The output categorically fits the expected rules which are advertised, which is to be grammatically correct, not factually correct.
Jesse@LouisIngenthron @DuncanWatson @caseynewton If a calculator was programmed to make plausible looking strings of numbers, but advertised as a calculator, I think a lawsuit might be in order.
@misc @DuncanWatson @caseynewton Last I checked, ChatGPT doesn't advertise on the factual accuracy of its AIs.
@LouisIngenthron @DuncanWatson @caseynewton That might save them from legal liability, but not moral culpability.
@misc @DuncanWatson @caseynewton Which goes full-circle back to the OP. They should feel as morally culpable for libel as calculator manufacturers do for bank fraud.
@LouisIngenthron @DuncanWatson @caseynewton In fairness, I said "might". IANAL, but the analogy elides relevant differences, so intuitively the legal question doesn't seem clear cut to me. Moreover, Casey seemed to be suggesting that it's an absurd proposition, and I think the statement deserves better on moral grounds alone. I wouldn't derisively say it's absurd to say gun manufacturers should be liable for deaths, even if the chance of a lawsuit succeeding is nil.
Drew 🐘@misc @LouisIngenthron @DuncanWatson @caseynewton IANAL but I'm pretty sure the only thing saving ChatGPT from legal liability is that they aren't publishing anything (given the historical legal interpretation of "publishing"). If someone used ChatGPT to generate news articles that contained falsehoods about someone the ChatGPT component would make it an easy case for the plaintiff because most viable defenses depend on showing genuine effort to determine factual basis for the published info.