Michael Schumacher’s family has won a legal battle over a controversial AI-generated “interview” with the seven-time Formula 1 World Champion published by German magazine Die Aktuelle
A family spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday a judgment and settlement on the Munich Labour Court by Funke Media Group, publishers of the Die Aktuelle magazine. The publication will pay €200,000 ($217,000) as a compensation.
Neither the Schumacher family nor the published media decided not to make further comments regarding the matter.
The AI fake interview, published as a front cover claimed it featured “nebulous half-sentences from friends. But answers from him! By Michael Schumacher” but only included answers generated by an AI chatbot.
Following major backlash from the public and the Schumacher family taking legal action against the magazine, the Funke Group apologized and terminated the contract of the editor-in-chief responsible for the publication.
This is not the first time that Die Aktuelle has had legal trouble with the Schumacher family. In 2014, after Schumacher’s skiing accident, the magazine published a front cover with Michael and his wife Corinna and the headline “Awaken,” implying they were talking about Michael’s health condition.
In reality, this was about other people who had awoken from comas in the past. The following year, the Schumacher family engaged in legal actions against the publication again over a cover suggesting a “new love” had entered Corinna’s life. However, the article was referring to Michael and Corinna’s daughter Gina-Maria.
There’s been very little information regarding Michael’s health condition since his major skiing accident while on a family holiday in the French Alps in December 2013.
The latest public statement on Michael was given by Corina Schumacher, speaking very briefly about her husband’s condition in the Netflix documentary, ‘Schumacher.’
“Michael is here. Different, but he’s here, and that gives us strength, I find.”
“We’re together. We live together at home. We do therapy. We do everything we can to make Michael better and to make sure he’s comfortable. And to simply make him feel our family, our bond. And no matter what, I will do everything I can. We all will.
“It’s very important to me that he can continue to enjoy his private life as much as possible. Michael always protected us, and now we are protecting Michael.”
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