Google, DeepMind, and Alphabet have been accused of secretly scraping data from the internet to build their own AI chatbot, Bard.
The firms were accused in a class action lawsuit filed in a California federal court, alleging that they’ve been secretly appropriating vast amounts of online content from millions of Americans. The plaintiffs, including eight pseudonymous individuals, including minors aged 13 and 6, allege that Google utilized this data to develop their own AI chatbot, Bard.
The complaint cites multiple violations of state and federal laws, such as the DMCA, California’s Unfair Competition law, and a state invasion of privacy rule. Additionally, Bard’s maker is accused of larceny and receipt of stolen property. The lawsuit draws attention to Google’s recent update of its privacy policy, which confirms the company’s practice of scraping public data from the internet to train its AI models, including Bard and its cloud-hosted products.
The suit argues that this policy update constitutes a reinforcement of Google’s position, despite the Federal Trade Commission’s warning that machine learning does not excuse unlawful data collection. The unnamed plaintiffs assert that Google’s actions infringe upon privacy and property rights, claiming that the company amassed personal and professional information, creative works, photographs, and emails without consent.
The plaintiffs are seeking at least $5 billion in damages, as well as injunctive relief and the implementation of cybersecurity safeguards to protect the data subjects. Google has denied the allegations, saying that it uses data from public sources responsibly and in line with its AI principles.
The sources for this piece include an article in TheRegister.