Canadian fiddler sues Google after AI Overview wrongly claimed he was a sex offender

[usonian]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/may/05/canadian-ashley-macisaac-fiddler-musician-singer-songwriter-sues-google-ai-sex-offender-ntwnfb


The musician is suing Google for $500,000 in general damages, $500,000 in aggravated damages and $500,000 in punitive damages.

An acclaimed Canadian fiddle player has launched a $1.5m civil lawsuit against Google, alleging that the online giant defamed him by falsely identifying him as a sex offender in an AI-generated summary of his life and career.

Ashley MacIsaac, a three-time Juno award-winning musician, filed the claim in the Ontario superior court of justice, asserting that Google was liable for the “foreseeable republication” of its AI-generated Overview feature, which previously published defamatory claims that he had been convicted of multiple criminal offences, including the sexual assault of a woman, internet luring involving a child with the intention of sexual assaulting the child, and assault causing bodily harm.

Google’s AI Overview also wrongly stated that MacIsaac had been listed on the national sex offender registry for life, the lawsuit says.

“As the creator and operator of the AI overview, Google is also liable for injuries and losses arising from the AI overview’s defective design,” MacIsaac’s lawsuit says. “Google knew, or ought to have known, that the AI overview was imperfect and could return information that was untrue.”

So Google's AI can't tell a fiddler from a diddler?

IT'S A PUBLIC MENACE.
JAIL GOOGLE. ALL OF IT.
OK. That's a lot of work. Just cut off their internet access.

[rampartd]

1. i'm a fiddler not a diddler

a pianist not a penis.

and releasing an ai needs to be regulated. asimov's laws at the very least.

The Three Laws of Robotics formulated by Isaac Asimov are:
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Additionally, Asimov later introduced a Zeroth Law, which states: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.

[usonian]

2. Agree, but we're in a society where money is God. And nothing else matters. You know the examples.

If this pisses you off, GOOD.
You're still human.

[rampartd]

3. we are programmed by language

capitalism, most words really, seem to mean weird things when it becomes convenient.

"war" is a recent example of a word defined out of existence. that process has taken a while

more suddenly a "warrant" is just a pick up order from a bureaucrat, but every bit as effective as a "judicial warrant"

oh, and what are the good pedophiles called now? phebophiles? i need to lookthat up.

[usonian]

4. I find that the fascists (of any time and any ilk) disconnect words from meaning. Words are weapons, used for effect.

That is why they change stories and reverse course.

Take those very prescient but misdirected tweets about the middle east.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221058132
Pure reflection.

And history has to be erased and rewritten.

Explained by Emmanuel Goldstein, via George Orwell.

https://genius.com/Emmanuel-goldstein-the-theory-and-practice-of-oligarchical-collectivism-annotated

[rampartd]

5. the orwellian aspects of this dystopia are stunning

and certainly a technological advance on any totalitarian regime of the 20th century.

they openly revere franco and pinochet which is fascist in my book,

is "authoritarian" accurate enough? i think they aspire to "totalitarian" but even that is a distinction invented to allow reagan to kill liberation movements

[usonian]

6. Too late to distinguish.

I got an email from id.me to verify info. About halfway thorough verifying with the VA, I feel that this is too much data that both should already have. It looks legit by my eyeballs.

Still, I am not giving any more data to anyone while this felon, rapist and traitor and ALL his ilk exist. So I halted the process.

Any more and I wouldn't sleep for a month.