Ashley MacIsaac Fights Back Against False Allegations

Canadian musician Ashley MacIsaac is taking Google to court after the tech giant’s AI search tool falsely branded him a convicted sex offender.

The Grammy-winning fiddle player says Google’s “AI Overview” feature published serious accusations against him. It wrongly claimed he’d committed sexual assault and appeared on a national sex offender registry. None of it is true.

The fallout was immediate and real. A performance MacIsaac had lined up was canceled after promoters spotted the false claims circulating online. Though they later apologized once they discovered the information was bogus, the damage was done.

MacIsaac is now seeking roughly $1.5 million in damages. He argues the false accusations have tarnished his reputation, caused him emotional distress, and left him worried about his safety in public spaces.

In the lawsuit, MacIsaac contends that Google bears responsibility for creating and running the AI system that churned out the misinformation in the first place. He also charges that the company did little to catch or correct the errors before they spread.

Google hasn’t commented on the case publicly. The search giant has previously acknowledged it’s working to tighten up the accuracy of its AI-generated search summaries—a tacit admission that glitches like this one have been a problem.