A Victorian mayor could launch the first defamation lawsuit against ChatGPT.

Brian Hood, who was elected mayor of Hepburn Shire last year, has threatened to sue OpenAI over ChatGPT’s false accusations that he served jail time for bribery.

He says he was shocked to learn that ChatGPT had falsely implicated him as a guilty party in a bribery scandal. 

The scandal involved a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia in the early 2000s, and although Mr Hood had worked for the subsidiary, he was never charged with a crime.

Lawyers representing Mr Hood have issued a letter of concern to OpenAI, demanding the company fix the errors in their client’s profile within 28 days or face a possible defamation lawsuit. OpenAI, which is based in San Francisco, has not yet responded to the legal letter.

If Mr Hood proceeds with legal action, it would be the first time a person has sued the owner of ChatGPT for claims made by the automated language product, which has gained immense popularity since its launch last year. Microsoft Corp integrated ChatGPT into its search engine Bing in February.

James Naughton, a partner at Mr Hood’s law firm, Gordon Legal, commented that a lawsuit would be “a landmark moment” as it would apply defamation law to a new area of artificial intelligence and publication in the IT space. 

Mr Naughton also pointed out that Mr Hood’s reputation is central to his role as an elected official, and the false accusations made by ChatGPT could potentially harm his career.

According to Mr Naughton, if Mr Hood files a lawsuit, it would accuse ChatGPT of giving users a false sense of accuracy by failing to include footnotes. 

He also highlighted that the algorithm used by ChatGPT is “very opaque”, making it difficult for someone to understand how the AI comes up with a certain answer.

Although Australian defamation damages payouts are generally capped at around $400,000, Mr Hood may claim more than $200,000 due to the serious nature of the false accusations made against him. 

The exact number of people who have accessed the false information about Mr Hood is unknown, which could also impact the payout size.