Overview
- A Delaware Superior Court judge refused to dismiss Robby Starbuck’s suit against Google, allowing core defamation claims to go forward and pushing the case into merits-stage litigation.
- Starbuck’s complaint alleges Bard repeatedly produced deeply false statements that labeled him a child rapist, a serial sexual abuser, a shooter, and linked him to Richard Spencer.
- Google argued the outputs were mere “hallucinations” and not publishable statements, but the court rejected that defense at the dismissal stage and said the claims are sufficient to proceed.
- The suit seeks more than $15 million in damages and names Dhillon Law Group and Shaw Keller LLP as Starbuck’s counsel, who say discovery will probe what Google executives and engineers knew.
- The case raises a central legal question about how the public‑figure standard of actual malice applies to AI systems and could force courts to define publisher duties and discovery rules for model development and training records.