Mealey's Artificial Intelligence : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Artificial Intelligence

May 23, 2025
OpenAI Escapes Radio Host’s Claim That ChatGPT Defamed Him

ATLANTA — No reasonable person reading false ChatGPT outputs linking a radio host to embezzlement and fraud claims would interpret them as actual facts given the record in the case and in light of the warnings issued with the program, but even if they did, as a public figure the host could not meet the actual malice standard, a judge in Georgia said in granting OpenAI LLC summary judgment on defamation claims.
May 22, 2025
SAG-AFTRA Files Charge Against Epic Games-‘Owned’ LLC Over Darth Vader AI Use

LOS ANGELES — Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) filed a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) charge against Llama Productions LLC, a company it says is owned by Epic Games Inc., accusing Llama of not bargaining in good faith by choosing “to replace the work of human performers with [artificial intelligence] A.I. technology without providing notice to the union” regarding the A.I. use of the voice of actor James Earl Jones for Star Wars character, Darth Vader, in Epic’s video game, Fortnite.
May 22, 2025
Judge: Product Suit Over Character.AI Proceeds, Speech Protections Don’t Apply

ORLANDO, Fla. — An artificial intelligence chatbot constitutes a product under Florida law, its outputs are not protected speech and Google LLC’s level of involvement in the technology imputes liability to it, a federal judge said in a May 21 opinion denying a motion to dismiss a mother’s action alleging that her son’s use of Character.AI led to suicide.
May 21, 2025
Arbitrator’s Possible AI Use Behind Motion To Vacate Video Game Award

SAN DIEGO — A man moved to vacate a take-nothing arbitration award in his antitrust and warranty case against gaming giant Valve Corp., saying the arbitrator outsourced his decision-making to artificial intelligence. Valve moved to dismiss the petition, arguing that the court lacks federal jurisdiction.
May 21, 2025
Hawaii Court Sanctions Attorney $100 For Fake Cites

HONOLULU — A Hawaii appellate court imposed a $100 sanction for the filing of a motion crafted by a per diem attorney containing two pin cites pointing to the wrong case and a third that didn’t appear to exist at all.
May 20, 2025
Law Firm, Attorneys: AI Fake Citations ‘Unacceptable, Embarrassing’

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The temptations and seeming convenience of artificial intelligence tripped up a law firm partner, who used it to generate case citations that turned out to be fabricated, four attorneys and their law firm told an Alabama federal court on May 19 in responses to an order to show cause, saying “[what] happened here is unacceptable” and asking that any sanction be appropriate to the conduct.
May 20, 2025
Magistrate Judge Won’t Reconsider ChatGPT Output Preservation Ruling

SAN FRANCISCO — A magistrate judge in California turned away OpenAI entities’ concerns over privacy and the technical issues in denying reconsideration of an order requiring preservation of ChatGPT outputs, saying the company had not shown that the outputs were not relevant to the case or that a different outcome was required.
May 20, 2025
President Trump Signs Bill Requiring Removal Of Online Deepfakes

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump on May 19 signed into law a bill banning the publication of intimate images designed to harm the subject or without their permission, creating civil liabilities for those publishing deepfake images and a process for the removal of such images.
May 19, 2025
Judge Certifies Collective Action In Workday AI Hiring Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — Any differences between members of an employment discrimination case related to Workday Inc.’s use of artificial intelligence to sort and rank job applicants are meaningless at this stage because the members are “alike in the central way that matters,” a federal judge in California said May 16 in granting conditional certification after finding that the sorting and ranking of job applicants creates a unified policy and that its rankings could constitute a hiring recommendation.
May 19, 2025
Filmmaker Says Meta AI Falsely, Repeatedly Accused Him Of Jan. 6 Riot Role

WILMINGTON, Del. — Despite being informed that its artificial intelligence incorrectly identified a filmmaker as a participant in the Jan. 6 riot, Meta Platforms Inc. ignored the situation for months and in fact allowed voice updates to latter products to parrot the same information, a filmmaker and journalist alleges in a Delaware suit for defamation.
May 16, 2025
Judge Finds More Likely Uses Of AI, Denies Reconsideration

LAS VEGAS — A pro se plaintiff’s second motion seeking reconsideration of dismissal with prejudice of his action appears to contain even more artificial intelligence-generated content and merely expresses disagreement with the prior ruling rather than addressing any of the requirements for reconsideration, a federal judge in Nevada said in denying relief and ordering that no further documents be filed in the case.
May 16, 2025
Anthropic Admits Its Claude AI Mangled Cite Used By Expert In Copyright Suit

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Anthropic PBC’s Claude artificial intelligence mangled a citation to a study referenced by an expert in a discovery dispute during formatting, but it was an “honest citation mistake” and the crux of the cite and the positions for which it stands were all correct, the company lawyer said May 15 in a response to a federal judge in California overseeing a copyright case.
May 15, 2025
OpenAI Must Preserve Output Data, Magistrate Judge Says

SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI entities must preserve user output data and segregate output log data going forward after consolidated news plaintiffs indicated that the amount of data being deleted is significant and the company offered no evidence about any efforts it was taking or could take to preserve the evidence, a federal magistrate judge in California said while setting a briefing schedule and hearing on potential spoliation motions.
May 15, 2025
Court Won’t Reconsider Limiting Copyright To Humans

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied rehearing and rehearing en banc of a ruling limiting copyright protections to human authors, turning away a man’s arguments that artificial intelligences share similarities with corporations entitled to such protections.
May 15, 2025
Special Master Imposes $31,100 In Costs After Attorneys’ AI Briefing Errors

LOS ANGELES — Two firms for plaintiffs in a bad faith insurance suit must pay $26,100 in special master fees and another $5,000 for defense costs after submitting an artificial intelligence-assisted supplemental brief with nine erroneous cites across 10 pages, a special master appointed in a federal court in California said while striking the brief and denying the plaintiffs any requested discovery relief.
May 14, 2025
Self Reporting To Bar As Sanction For Fake Cites Permissible, Judge Says

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An attorney in an immigration case who outsourced the writing of a brief and failed to catch several resulting fake case citations possibly created with artificial intelligence cannot avoid the sanction of self reporting to the state bars of which he is a member, a federal judge in New Mexico said in overruling his objections to a magistrate judge’s ruling.
May 14, 2025
AI Plaintiffs Direct Court To Copyright Office Report On Fair Use

SAN FRANCISCO — The plaintiffs in an artificial intelligence copyright suit directed a federal judge in California to a recent U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) report suggesting that fair use defenses might not be available when the AI’s purpose is similar to that of the copyrighted training data and that “the speed and scale at which” AIs can produce similar works could be considered an effect on the market.
May 14, 2025
Attorney Fees Clarified In Clearview Settlement While Objectors Appeal

CHICAGO — Almost two months after final approval was granted to a settlement of claims against the creator and curator of a massive digital photo database under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the Illinois federal judge who presided over the consolidated class action granted the plaintiffs’ unopposed motion for amended judgment, clarifying that she also approved their request for an award of attorney fees.
May 13, 2025
Authors, Nvidia Agree To Consolidate AI Copyright Suits

SAN FRANCISCO — Authors in a pair of federal suits in California alleging improper use of copyrighted material to train artificial intelligence agreed in a May 12 joint stipulation to consolidate their actions against Nvidia Corp.
May 13, 2025
Insurer Says COVID Fallout, Not AI Scheme, Behind Securities’ Class Allegations

NEW YORK — CVS Health Corp. faced the same trends in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic as other insurers, and it was those difficulties that impacted post-acute care prior authorization denials and the company’s economic performance, not an attempt to divest itself of an illicit artificial intelligence scheme in response to changes in the Medicare program, an insurer tells a federal judge in New York in seeking dismissal of a securities action.
May 13, 2025
Judge Admits AI Clone Video Of Homicide Victim As Witness Statement

PHOENIX — A judge in Arizona sentenced a man to more than 10 years in jail after he was found guilty of manslaughter by a jury that viewed a witness impact statement from an artificial intelligence-generated version of the victim in what is believed to be the first such use of the technology.
May 13, 2025
Federal Judge In Texas Warns Parties About Use Of AI, Rule 11

HOUSTON — A federal judge in Texas warned parties practicing in the court that appropriate sanctions will follow uses of artificial intelligence that violate Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11.
May 12, 2025
Musk: UCL Counterclaims By OpenAI Target Protected Speech

SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI Inc. and related entities’ California unfair competition law (UCL) counterclaims target protected petitioning activity and speech, and the “circular” logic of the fraudulent prong claim does not meet the required pleading standard, Elon Musk says in seeking dismissal of the counterclaims in California federal court.
May 09, 2025
If Corporations Enjoy Copyright Protection, So Should AI, Man Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Corporations and artificial intelligences share similarities, such a lack of natural lifespans and families, yet copyright protections for the former “is simply not controversial” while a panel rejected such protections for the later, a man says in a petition for en banc review of a District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appealsruling requiring a human author for copyright purposes.
May 07, 2025
Judge Won’t Enjoin Suspension In Yale Student AI Cheating Case

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A preliminary injunction reinstating a foreign Yale School of Management student who was suspended for using artificial intelligence on a final exam would not exonerate him, prevent disclosure of the suspension or resulting injury to his reputation or impact his visa status, a federal judge in Connecticut said in finding that the student had not shown injury sufficient for injunctive relief.