A German court has ruled that Alphabet Inc subsidiary Google can be held liable for false information generated by its artificial intelligence search summaries. The Munich Regional Court issued a preliminary ruling against Google, finding the company bears responsibility for defamatory statements produced by its AI Overviews feature, and ordered Google to prevent the spread of inaccurate claims. The case arose after two publishers discovered that Google’s AI-generated summaries linked them to alleged scams, questionable business practices and subscription fraud schemes, despite a lack of supporting evidence. The affected companies sent a cease-and-desist letter, but Google rejected liability, arguing users receive warnings that AI-generated information may contain mistakes. The court disagreed, finding that Google’s AI system combined information from unrelated companies and generated allegations not appearing in source material. The court determined the AI system created new statements rather than simply displaying third-party content. Judges rejected the argument that third parties should bear responsibility, concluding Google controls the technology and must accept accountability. The court ordered Google to remove a substantial portion of disputed statements and cover 80 per cent of legal costs. The decision remains preliminary and could face appeal.