A German court has held Google responsible for an AI answer assembled from true facts because those facts belonged to a different man.

In a decision dated Sept. 24, 2026 , the Regional Court of Aachen ordered Google to stop spreading three versions of an AI Mode answer about a local doctor. He had served as chief physician and professor of neuroradiology until late June. When people searched for why he left, AI Mode supplied a serious criminal allegation, and when they followed up with terms like suspension, termination, and court proceedings, it produced multi-paragraph accounts of a legal aftermath. The proceedings were real. They involved a different man, also a former university professor, and the court could confirm the mix-up from its own records.

The doctor sent Google a detailed explanation in late August. In mid-September, Google said it would take no action, and a formal legal demand sent the same day went nowhere.…