The LLM Liability Shadow
Maybe the era of tech immunity is ending as LLMs went too far for Section 230
If the past 15 years have been around the rise of Big Tech and its accumulation of massive wealth and power, the next 15 may be very different. It’s in the air, with rulings against social media companies, a disgust at the uber-wealthy and their ostentatious displays, and a growing backlash against how tech has inserted itself into everything.
Courts are playing a major role in this, not because they are activist, but because citizens and companies are bringing compelling complaints of abuse, recklessness, and exploitation before judges and juries. The adjudication is a symptom of the abusiveness of these companies.
A recent decision in Germany found that smears created by Google’s newish LLM summary engine were Google’s problem, as they were generated by company software. Gary Marcus wrote about how this ruling and line of reasoning could have far-reaching effects:
If American courts were to rule similarly, or if Congress made that the law of the land, all the LLM providers would be in deep, deep trouble. Because essentially all their software has a tendency to fabricate fairly regularly and even defame people and to sometimes give bad medical information, and so on.
We’ve seen LLMs associated with NEJM and others giving bad information, either via integrations on-site or through partnerships like with OpenEvidence. We know OpenEvidence is a mess, seemingly capable of throwing out nonsense or over-confident inadequacies.
Liability has been a mortal fear among Silicon Valley elites, and part of the reason Section 230 has been extended to cover liability it was never intended to shield anyone from.
It all seems a piece, with the them “going too far.” Rather than treating inference engines as normal technology and seeing where they made sense and proved useful, the scammers and fabulists in Silicon Valley went greedy and spun up stories to attract investors and create financial bubbles for themselves.
“So sue me” may be more of an option now and less of a taunt.
