Overview
- Robby Starbuck filed a defamation lawsuit against Meta, claiming its AI chatbot falsely linked him to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, QAnon, and criminal behavior.
- Starbuck alleges that Meta ignored warnings and allowed the chatbot to continue generating harmful falsehoods for months before implementing ineffective fixes.
- Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan issued a public apology, calling the AI’s outputs unacceptable and pledging further technical improvements.
- The lawsuit, filed in Delaware Superior Court, demands over $5 million in damages and an injunction to prevent future defamatory outputs from Meta's AI.
- The case raises broader questions about AI accountability, the limitations of Section 230 protections, and the need for systemic safeguards in generative AI systems.