In the coming months, the US Supreme Court will make an important decision that could affect internet companies and AI technologies like ChatGPT. They will decide if YouTube, owned by Alphabet Inc., can be sued for the video recommendations it gives users. This will test whether a US law that protects tech companies from legal responsibility for content posted by its users also applies when companies use algorithms to recommend content.
This decision could impact the discussion about whether companies that create AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT from OpenAI and Bard from Google, should be protected from legal claims such as defamation or privacy violations. The algorithms used in these AI tools are similar to those that recommend videos on YouTube.
The main question is whether organizing online information through recommendation engines makes companies responsible for the content. This issue is also related to chatbots.
The Supreme Court justices are undecided about changing the protections provided by the 1996 Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Even though that case wasn’t directly about AI, one justice said that AI tools generating “poetry” and “polemics” might not have legal protection.
This case is part of a larger debate about whether Section 230 protection should apply to AI models trained on online information that can create original works. Section 230 protections generally apply to content from users of a technology platform, not to information developed by a company itself. Courts haven’t yet decided if a response from an AI chatbot would be protected.
The future of what AI can or cannot tell its users could be in the hands of the highest court.