Air Canada: Chatbot is a legal entity responsible for its own actions

AI the Law & You

In today’s episode, we talk about how Air Canada tried to defend itself in court by contending that the chatbot on its company site is its own entity and is separate from Air Canada. A lot of the “fun” in this case is the absurdity of the defense. However, it’s a good case for thought experiments, thinking about the near term future of AI and who ultimately is responsible for its output.

While prepping for this call, I really did dig into the case here because of the absurdity of it in my mind. Joel, give us a brief overview of what the case is and who the complainants and defendants are.

From Joel MacMull, Lawyer

What makes this resonate, at least with me, is the fact that we have a very sympathetic plaintiff. A young man, buys an airline ticket, in connection with his deceased grandmother, he buys it from Vancouver to Toronto. Prior to buying the ticket, he, is on Air Canada's website and is having a conversation with its chatbot and asks about bereavement fare.

And the sum and substance of the message he receives is that within 90 days after his purchase, again, this is a conversation he's having with the chatbot, within 90 days after making his purchase, he can essentially claim bereavement. And the chatbot, in providing him with that textual response, actually has a hyperlink to another Air Canada webpage, which has additional terms about bereavement there.

It so happens that that additional hyperlink, however, is at odds with what the chatbot is saying, and that hyperlink says, in essence, that bereavement fare has to be, paid for or, otherwise, dealt with on the front end. You can't do it after the travel has occurred.

But, from the facts of the case, it doesn't look like this young man did that, instead just relying on the chatbot. Long story short, he travels to Toronto, within the 90 day window, he seeks his reimbursement, consistent with the information he received from the chatbot. And, from what I understand, he engages in some emails with Air Canada, and they say, Hey, you know what?

The statement that you received on the chatbot is erroneous. We'll flag that, we'll get that corrected, but from what I understand, refused to provide him, with, the discount of his bereavement fare, which, according to the opinion, was something to the tune of 600, was the difference between the full fare and the bereavement fare that he otherwise would have been entitled to.