In April, lawyers for the airline Avianca noticed something strange. A passenger, Robert Mata, had sued the airline, alleging that a serving cart on a flight had struck and severely injured his left knee, but several cases cited in Mata's lawsuit didn't appear to exist. The judge couldn't verify them, either. It turned out that ChatGPT had made them all up, fabricating names and decisions. One of Mata's lawyers, Steven A. Schwartz, had used the chatbot as an assistant--his first time using the program for legal research--and, as Schwartz wrote in an affidavit, "was unaware of the possibility that its content could be false."

What's happening: The EU is creating new rules to make it easier to sue AI companies for harm. A bill unveiled last week, which is likely to become law in a couple of years, is part of Europe's push to prevent AI developers from releasing dangerous systems. The details: The goal of the bill is to hold AI companies accountable for potential damage and discrimination caused by their systems by making it easier for consumers to launch EU-wide class actions. The new bill, called the AI Liability Directive, will add teeth to the EU's AI Act, which is set to become EU law around the same time, and would require extra checks for "high risk" uses of AI that have the most potential to harm people, including systems for policing, recruitment, or health care. The response: While tech companies complain it could have a chilling effect on innovation, consumer activists say it doesn't go far enough.