Oct 22 (Reuters) - Conservative activist Robby Starbuck

sued Google on Wednesday, alleging the tech giant's

artificial intelligence systems generated "outrageously false"

information about him.

Starbuck said in the lawsuit, filed in Delaware state court,

that Google's AI systems falsely called him a "child rapist,"

"serial sexual abuser" and "shooter" in response to user queries

and delivered defamatory statements to millions of users.

Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said most of the claims were

related to mistaken "hallucinations" from Google's Bard large

language model that the company worked to address in 2023.

"Hallucinations are a well-known issue for all LLMs, which

we disclose and work hard to minimize," Castaneda said. "But as

everyone knows, if you're creative enough, you can prompt a

chatbot to say something misleading."

Starbuck is best known for opposing diversity, equity and

inclusion initiatives.

"No one - regardless of political beliefs - should ever

experience this," he said in a statement about the lawsuit. "Now

is the time for all of us to demand transparent, unbiased AI

that cannot be weaponized to harm people."

Starbuck made similar allegations against Meta Platforms ( META )

in a separate lawsuit in April. Starbuck and Meta

settled their dispute in August, and Starbuck advised the

company on AI issues under the settlement.

According to Wednesday's complaint, Starbuck learned in

December 2023 that Bard had falsely connected him with white

nationalist Richard Spencer. The lawsuit said that Bard cited

fabricated sources and that Google failed to address the

statements after Starbuck contacted the company.

Starbuck's lawsuit also said that Google's Gemma chatbot

disseminated false sexual assault allegations against him in

August based on fictitious sources. Starbuck also alleged the

chatbot said that he committed spousal abuse, attended the

January 6 Capitol riots and appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein

files, among other things.

Starbuck said he has been approached by people who believed

some of the false accusations and that they could lead to

increased threats on his life, noting the recent assassination

of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Starbuck asked the court for at least $15 million in

damages.