Frances M. Green, Of Counsel in the Employment, Labor & Workforce Management practice, in the firm’s New York office, was quoted in Bloomberg Law, in “ChatGPT-Linked Mass Shootings Drive Developer Liability Concerns,” by Shweta Watwe.
Following is an excerpt:
Victims of real-world violence inflicted at the hands of heavy ChatGPT users are forcing courts to evaluate whether developers can be held responsible when chatbot use leads to tragedy. …
With many product liability claims, the nature of the relationship between the product maker and the user determines what the designer can be accountable for.
Chatbots’ anthropomorphic design can foster a relationship that can be nurtured or exploited, said Frances Green, Of Counsel at Epstein Becker Green. This can create the “special relationship” required for liability because the chatbots are designed to encourage emotional connection, she said.
But it’s unclear whether that relationship has created a duty for chatbot developers to guarantee the tool’s safety or to warn users of risks, she added.
In the absence of comprehensive legislation or regulations, the cases will likely turn on whether it was foreseeable to the developer that the chatbot could be misused in ways that cause harm, Green said.
