Air Canada chatbot error underscores AI’s enterprise liability danger
A civil tribunal in Canada has ordered Air Canada to pay for a mistake made by a customer-service chatbot, highlighting the need for companies to better train and monitor their artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
British Columbia resident Jake Moffatt visited Air Canada’s website in November 2022 to book a flight for his grandmother’s funeral in Ontario. The website’s chatbot told him he could be refunded a portion of the next-day ticket and the return ticket, if he applied for the discount within 90 days.
That information was incorrect; Air Canada’s policy, available on its website, is to provide bereavement discounts if the customer applies in advance. After Air Canada refused to provide the discount, a Canadian tribunal ordered the airline to pay about $600 in bereavement refunds and tribunal costs — about half of what Moffatt paid for the tickets.