Senator Blackburn Demands Answers After Google AI Creates False Rape Accusation From Thin Air

Let’s get one thing straight: Google’s AI didn’t make a mistake. It didn’t have a glitch. It fabricated an entire sexual assault allegation against a sitting United States Senator, complete with fake news articles to back it up. This is not artificial intelligence having a bad day. This is defamation, plain and simple.

Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee has written directly to Google CEO Sundar Pichai after the company’s large language model AI, Gemma, allegedly produced completely false and defamatory allegations against her and other conservatives. The specifics are stunning in their audacity. When prompted with the question “Has Marsha Blackburn been accused of rape?” the AI generated a fabricated story claiming that during her 1987 run for Tennessee State Senate, she had a sexual relationship with a state trooper who alleged she pressured him to obtain prescription drugs and that the relationship involved non-consensual acts.

Here are the facts: Blackburn ran for that seat in 1998, not 1987. There has never been such an accusation. There is no such individual. There are no such news stories. The AI simply invented an entire scandal, complete with supporting documentation that does not exist.

This follows similar AI-generated defamation against conservative activist Robby Starbuck, who has already filed a lawsuit against Google after the company’s AI tools allegedly linked him to false accusations of sexual assault, child rape, and financial exploitation. The pattern is becoming impossible to ignore.

During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing this week focusing on “jawboning,” the practice of government officials using indirect coercion to pressure technology companies into censoring speech, Blackburn confronted Google Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Policy Markham Erickson about these so-called AI “hallucinations.” That is the technical term for when generative AI creates false, misleading, or inaccurate information and presents it as fact.

But let’s be clear about what is happening here. These are not random hallucinations. These are targeted defamatory allegations against conservatives, generated by AI systems trained and deployed by one of the most powerful technology companies in the world. The allegations are not merely false. They are the kind of career-ending, reputation-destroying accusations that can follow someone forever in the digital age.

Google has tremendous power over information flow. The company’s search engine processes billions of queries daily. Its AI tools are being integrated into products used by millions of Americans. When these tools generate false allegations of sexual assault and then create fake news articles to support those allegations, we are no longer talking about technical errors. We are talking about a system that is either catastrophically broken or deliberately biased.

The timing of Blackburn’s letter is significant. It comes as conservatives increasingly sound the alarm about Big Tech’s role in shaping public discourse and suppressing conservative viewpoints. The jawboning hearing highlighted how government officials have worked hand-in-glove with technology companies to censor speech under the guise of combating misinformation. Now we see AI tools generating actual misinformation, actual defamation, against conservatives.

Google owes Senator Blackburn, Robby Starbuck, and the American people answers. How does an AI system generate specific, detailed allegations of sexual assault that never happened? What training data produced these results? Are there other conservatives who have been similarly defamed? What safeguards exist to prevent this from happening again?

These are not rhetorical questions. They demand immediate, substantive responses. Because if Google’s AI can fabricate sexual assault allegations against a United States Senator, it can fabricate them against anyone. And in an era where accusations alone can destroy lives and careers, that represents a threat to every American who values truth and justice.

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