The lawsuit comes amid growing concerns about how AI facilitates the spread of misinformation.
Published October 22, 2025
Conservative activist Robbie Starbuck has sued Google, accusing the tech giant’s artificial intelligence system of generating “grossly false” information about him.
Starbuck said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Delaware state court that Google’s AI systems falsely referred to him as a “child rapist,” “serial molester” and “shooter” in response to user questions and made derogatory statements to millions of users.
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Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said most of the allegations relate to false “hallucinations” by Google’s Bard large-scale language model, which the company is working to address in 2023.
“Hallucinations are a well-known problem for all LLMs, and we work hard to uncover and minimize them,” Castaneda said. “But as we all know, with enough creativity, you can make chatbots say misleading things.”
Starbucks is best known for opposing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
“No one should have to go through something like this, regardless of their political beliefs,” he said in a statement about the lawsuit. “Now is the time for all of us to demand transparent and unbiased AI that is not weaponized to harm people.”
Starbucks made similar claims against Metaplatforms in a separate lawsuit in April. Starbuck and Meta resolved their dispute in August, with Starbuck advising the company on AI issues under the settlement.
Starbuck learned in December 2023 that Byrd had falsely linked him to white supremacist Richard Spencer, according to Wednesday’s complaint. In the complaint, Bird cited fabricated sources and said Google did not address the statement even after Starbuck contacted the company.
Starbuck’s lawsuit also says Google’s Gemma chatbot spread false sexual assault allegations against him based on fictitious sources in August. Starbuck also claimed that the chatbot said things like committing spousal abuse, participating in the January 6th Capitol riot, and appearing in Jeffrey Epstein’s files.
Starbuck, referring to the recent assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, said he has been contacted by people who believe some of the false accusations, which could lead to increased threats against his life.
Starbuck asked the court for at least $15 million in damages.
Starbucks’ lawsuit comes amid growing concerns that AI-generated content is becoming easier to create and could facilitate the spread of misinformation. As Al Jazeera previously reported, Google’s VEO3 AI video maker allowed users to create deceptive videos of news events.
Alphabet — Google’s parent company’s stock price is relatively flat following news of the lawsuit. As of 2:30 pm in New York (18:30 pm Japan time), it was up 0.06%.
