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  "path": "/2026/06/tech-bros-not-thinking-things-through.html",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-10T22:04:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://40yrs.blogspot.com",
  "tags": [
    "Google can be held liable false AI generated summaries",
    "ruled",
    "flagged by The Decoder"
  ],
  "textContent": "Generally, when a story starts with, \"A German court ruled,\" you should expect bad news.\n\nNot this time.\n\nThis time, a court in Munich has ruled that Google can be held liable false AI generated summaries.\n\nPotentially impacting all AI search engines and chatbots known to poorly paraphrase source links, a German court has ruled that Google is liable for false statements in AI Overviews.\n\n> The preliminary ruling came in a case flagged by The Decoder, where two publishers found that Google’s AI Overviews incorrectly linked them to scams and other sketchy business practices. After smearing publishers by making affirmative statements like “Yes, [it] is known for dubious business practices and is often perceived as a scam,” Google failed to correct the misleading output, even after the publishers sent a cease-and-desist letter earlier this year.\n>\n> Google tried the usual arguments to shield itself from liability for false statements in AI Overviews, such as arguing that most users understand that AI outputs aren’t always accurate and must be verified.\n>\n> But the court found that, unlike traditional search engines that merely present lists of links to third-party statements, Google’s tool made “independent, new, and substantive statements” based on its own misinterpretation of links on the Internet.\n>\n> That’s a problem, the court said, because while publishers may have been able to sue to stop third parties from publishing defamatory statements appearing in Google search results, only Google can correct the underlying algorithm and outputs displayed in AI Overviews. And because, at least initially, the company did not, it therefore “must be held accountable,” the court ruled. Beyond that, Google’s argument was deemed particularly weak, since the AI overview in this case “contains statements that do not appear in the search results at all.”\n\nGoogle's AI generated content is Google generated content, just the same as if one of their flesh and blood employees drafted and published this.\n\nThe ruling is sound, which makes it an outlier for a German court, and it is just, which also makes it an outlier for a German court.\n\nPart of the allure of AI systems is the belief that they subvert accountability for the company that uses them.\n\nNot so much.",
  "title": "Tech Bros Not Thinking Things Through",
  "updatedAt": "2026-06-11T05:05:14.560Z"
}