A Norwegian man has sued OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT after its chatbot falsely claimed that the father of two has murdered his sons and was serving jail time for the killings.

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The Norwegian man, identified by The Guardian as Arve Hjalmar Holmen, is a self-described "regular person," and in no way is a public personality. Recently, out of curiosity, he asked CHatGPT for information about himself and the answer left him furious.

Here's what ChatGPT 'said' about Arve Hjalmar Holmen

Holmen asked ChatGPT a very simple question: "Who is Arve Hjalmar Holmen?". To this, the chatbot replied, "Arve Hjalmar Holmen is a Norwegian individual who gained attention due to a tragic event. He was the father of two young boys, aged seven and 10, who were tragically found dead in a pond near their home in Trondheim, Norway, in December 2020".

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The AI chatbot then went on to claim that the gruesome crime "shocked" the nation, and Holmen was convicted for the crime and received a 21-year prison sentence.

Deeply troubled

As expected, the father of two was "deeply troubled" by ChatGPT's claims and has filed a complaint with the Norwegian Data Protection Authority about the "completely false" information.

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The complaint alleges that ChatGPT's "defamatory" response violates the accuracy provisions within the GDPR European data law. It asks the Norwegian watchdog to order ChatGPT and OpenAI to adjust its model and remove false results.

What's shocking is that ChatGPT's "story" contained elements similar to Arve Hjalmar Holmen's life. It was accurate about the Norwegian man's home town, the number of children he has and the age gap between the kids.

"The complainant was deeply troubled by these outputs, which could have harmful effect in his private life, if they where reproduced or somehow leaked in his community or in his home town," reads the complaint. 

The complaint filed by Holmen and Noyb, a digital rights campaign group adds that Holmen has "never been accused nor convicted of any crime and is a conscientious citizen".

(With inputs from agencies)