
Dean William McGeveran Quoted in Star Tribune About Lawsuit Regarding AI False Statement
Dean William McGeveran, William S. Pattee Professor of Law, was quoted in the Minnesota Star Tribune about a Minnesota solar company suing Google for defamation, claiming the tech company’s “AI Overview” falsely stated that the company faced a lawsuit from the Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. While four solar-lending companies were sued last year — they were accused of concealing and improperly charging $35 million in fees to Minnesotans since 2017 — Isanti-based Wolf River Electric was not a defendant in that suit. Wolf River filed its lawsuit against Google in March in state court. On Monday, Google filed to move the case to federal court, and the case was assigned to the U.S. District Court in Minnesota. Wolf River is seeking damages of $110 million to $210 million due to business losses as a result of the online inaccuracy. Dean McGeveran said Wolf River faces an uphill battle, and the move to federal court likely favors Google. He said, “Assuming that they’re going to assert a Section 230 defense, federal courts have been very receptive to those.” Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, providers and users of an “interactive computer service” cannot be held liable as the publisher or speaker of content provided by another “information content provider.” He added, “The question in this case is, ‘Who wrote the AI Overview?’ Under current law, I think the answer, pretty clearly, is: ‘Not Google.’”