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AI & Law
When AI 'makes things up': hallucinated output and defamation risk
Generative models can invent false statements about real people, which can create defamation exposure.
Generative AI will 'confidently fabricate' negative facts about real individuals or companies. When such false statements are published or relied upon, they can amount to defamation.
Liability tends to turn on whether the platform knew, whether it offered a correction mechanism, and whether it set guardrails for high-risk queries.
The pragmatic approach is to isolate sensitive queries about real people, offer fact-check and correction channels, and keep records to show reasonable care.