Conservative Activist Robby Starbuck Settles Lawsuit with Meta over Defamation by AI

Conservative activist Robby Starbuck has reached a settlement with Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta following his lawsuit alleging defamation by the company’s AI chatbot.

Fox Business reports that conservative activist Robby Starbuck, prominent for his work in dismantling corporate America’s DEI machine,  and tech giant Meta have reached a settlement in the lawsuit filed by Starbuck, which alleged that Meta’s AI chatbot defamed him. The resolution of this case not only puts an end to the legal dispute but also marks the beginning of a collaborative effort between Starbuck and Meta to address the crucial issue of political bias in AI models.

As part of the settlement, Starbuck will take on a consulting role at Meta with a primary focus of enhancing the company’s existing initiatives aimed at combating political bias in its AI models and minimizing the occurrence of “hallucinations” – instances where AI chatbot generate fabricated information.

In a joint statement, Meta and Starbuck expressed their satisfaction with the resolution of the matter:

Both parties have resolved this matter to our mutual satisfaction. Since engaging on these important issues with Robby, Meta has made tremendous strides to improve the accuracy of Meta AI and mitigate ideological and political bias. Building on that work, Meta and Robby Starbuck will work collaboratively in the coming months to continue to find ways to address issues of ideological and political bias and minimize the risk that the model returns hallucinations in response to user queries.

Starbuck’s lawsuit, filed in April, stemmed from alleged false accusations made by Meta’s chatbot, which reportedly labeled him a “White nationalist” who was arrested on January 6. The chatbot also allegedly suggested that Starbuck, a right-wing influencer, should lose custody of his children, deeming him a danger to them. Upon further investigation, Starbuck discovered additional falsehoods propagated by the chatbot and attempted to resolve the issue with Meta before ultimately deciding to file a lawsuit.

The concern over woke bias in AI platforms is not limited to Meta alone. Other prominent AI chatbots, such as Google Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, have faced similar criticism for exhibiting biases. Google Gemini faced backlash for claiming that Memorial Day is a controversial holiday and generating racially inaccurate images of historical figures. ChatGPT, on the other hand, was found to refuse requests to praise Donald Trump while accepting requests to praise Kamala Harris or Joe Biden. In response, OpenAI implemented programs to address bias in its models.