Overview
- Starbuck filed the defamation suit in Delaware Superior Court this week seeking at least $15 million in damages.
- The complaint says Google’s Bard, Gemini and Gemma generated false claims linking him to sexual assault, child rape, a shooting, the Jan. 6 riot and Epstein’s flight logs, while citing non‑existent articles from mainstream outlets.
- He alleges the false outputs reached about 2,843,917 unique users and says he warned Google for roughly two years with multiple cease‑and‑desist letters.
- Google says most cited examples stem from Bard hallucinations it addressed in 2023, will review the complaint, could not replicate many of the prompts in consumer products, and notes Gemma is an open model distinct from the Gemini app.
- Starbuck settled a similar lawsuit with Meta in August and later advised the company on AI issues, as courts confront the high bar for public figures to prove actual malice in chatbot defamation claims.