Artificial intelligence has arrived like a hurricane, and companies have rushed to adopt it everywhere… without checking if it actually works. An Air Canada chatbot invented a bereavement refund for a customer, but the airline refused to pay, saying he is not responsible for what the chatbot says. The judge doesn't think the same thing.

The incident has sparked a debate over the extent to which a company is responsible for the artificial intelligence it uses… Or its creators? What does not seem acceptable is that the responsibility lies with the customer.

If a business uses a chatbot to offer services to customers, it is acting as a worker for the business and is therefore responsible for what that worker says or does. Air Canada He doesn't think the same thing.

The Air Canada AI that invented the return policy

According to account local media Vancouver SunshineThe incident occurred in 2022, when Jake Moffatt was looking for an urgent plane ticket to Toronto, after the death of his grandmother.

A chatbot assisted him on the Air Canada website. The ticket costs 1,640 Canadian dollars round trip, but the chatbot told him that in the next 90 days he could request a “grief refund”, due to the death of his grandmotherand the company would reimburse $880.

Returning home after the funeral, Jake Moffatt requested a refund from Air Canada, but was shocked to discover that the company did not offer this service.

He complained to the airline providing screenshots of his conversation with Air Canada's chatbot, but the company argued that it could not be held responsible for the information provided by the chatbotbecause “the chatbot is a separate legal entity that is responsible for its own actions.”

Logically, the client reported the matter and the judge ruled in his favor. As tribunal member Christopher Rivers explains in sentence“The applicable standard of care requires that a company take reasonable precautions to ensure that its representatives are not misleading.”

He continues: “The chatbot is still part of the Air Canada website. It should be obvious to Air Canada that it is responsible for all information on its website.”

The defense argued that return conditions were stated elsewhere on the website and that bereavement returns were not considered. But, again, the judge argues that the customer is not obligated to check the same information on different websites, nor can he know what constitutes good or bad information.

Air Canada has accepted the decision and will not appeal. He paid the client's reimbursement and attorneys' fees. You have removed the chatbot from your website.

Many companies are adopting artificial intelligence to offer services. And while, of course, they have the right to do so, it seems logical that they take responsibility for the work done by AIbecause at the end of the day, he's just another employee working for you.

The case of the Air Canada chatbot that invented the return policy set a precedentin the absence of legislation that regulates all these issues more precisely.