Google faces a defamation lawsuit after a Delaware judge ruled on Friday that the tech giant must defend itself against claims by conservative activist Robby Starbuck. Starbuck filed the lawsuit last October, alleging Google’s AI chatbots, including Gemini, Bard, and Gemma, invented violent criminal allegations about him and spread them to millions of users. The complaint states users received fabricated responses containing invented rape allegations, a false claim that Starbuck sexually assaulted a minor, a fabricated connection to Jeffrey Epstein’s private plane, and an invented criminal history involving stalking, drug charges, and resisting arrest. The lawsuit alleges Gemini reported the false claims had been shown to 2,843,917 unique users. Starbuck’s complaint claims the system was deliberately designed to produce damaging content about people whose politics conflict with those of Google’s leadership, naming Starbuck specifically. Google has not addressed this specific allegation of intentional design in its public statements, focusing instead on the broader issue of AI hallucination.