Delaware Kept Bard's Lies in Court

On Friday, Delaware Superior Court Judge Meghan A. Adams denied Google's motion to dismiss Robby Starbuck's defamation suit over outputs from Bard and its Gemini successors. Adams called the dispute a new frontier for defamation law, then resolved the pleading fight with ordinary notice-pleading rules. Alleged falsehoods about sexual crimes, January 6, and a white-supremacist link stay in the case. Google's preferred move, treating chatbot fabrications as something other than published speech, failed at the courthouse door. Discovery opens. The speaker problem remains.