After months of litigation, a civil court told Air Canada it must reimburse a customer who was given incorrect refund information by an AI chatbot on the company’s website. The company had argued that the chatbot was a separate legal entity and that it was not responsible for its actions.
Jake Moffat, the petitioner in the case, visited Air Canada’s website immediately after his grandmother’s death, reports Ars Technica. He wondered how the airline’s bereavement fares worked, so he asked the website’s chatbot to explain it. But the chatbot misled him by asking him to book a flight immediately and then request a refund within 90 days. That wasn’t how it worked.
Here’s what Air Canada’s policy says about the policy: “Air Canada’s travel policy provides an option for our customers who must travel due to the imminent death or death of an immediate family member. Please note that our bereavement policy does not allow refunds for trips already taken.
Moffat followed what the chatbot told him to do and took the flight. He then requested a refund from Air Canada, which the company refused. At the time, the company argued that the chatbot’s response had a connection to current policy, meaning Moffat should have known that bereavement fares could not be requested after the flight. After months of trying to get a refund, Mofatt filed a small claims complaint with the Civil Resolution Tribunal of Canada.
In court, Air Canada suggested that the chatbot was a separate legal entity responsible for its own actions.
“This is a remarkable submission. Although a chatbot has an interactive component, it is only part of the Air Canada website. It should be obvious to Air Canada that it is responsible for all information contained on its website. It makes no difference whether the information comes from a static page or a chatbot,” a tribunal member wrote in the court’s ruling.
This case in Canada is the first of its kind, according to Crushable. This could mean that the judgment in this case could have implications for future cases in which other companies’ AI chatbots come under the scanner.
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