Michael Schumacher’s family planning legal action over AI ‘interview’
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Michael Schumacher at a Mercedes event in Singapore in 2012. He suffered a serious brain injury while on holiday a year later.
PHOTO: THE NEW PAPER FILE
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LONDON – Michael Schumacher’s family are planning legal action against a German weekly magazine over an “interview” with the seven-time Formula One champion that was generated by artificial intelligence (AI).
A spokesman for the Schumacher family, asked by Reuters for a comment on Wednesday, pointed to published reports of them wanting to take legal action.
The Ferrari great has not been seen in public since he suffered a serious brain injury
His family has guarded his privacy since, with access limited to those closest to him and little information given about his condition.
The latest edition of Die Aktuelle ran a front cover with a picture of a smiling Schumacher and the headline promising “Michael Schumacher, the first interview” with the words “world sensation”. Below it said “it sounds deceptively real”.
The magazine had claimed that it had the exclusive with Schumacher, saying: “No meagre, nebulous half-sentences from friends. But answers from him! By Michael Schumacher, 54!”
The article, titled “My life has completely changed”, detailed “Schumacher’s feelings about the accident, his children, and his future”.
Quotes included: “My life has completely changed since (the accident). That was a horrible time for my wife, my children and the whole family. I was so badly injured that I lay for months in a kind of artificial coma because, otherwise, my body couldn’t have dealt with it all. I’ve had a tough time but the hospital team has managed to bring me back to my family.”
But it emerged that the supposed quotes by the German had been produced by AI, with fans incensed and many labelling it “tasteless” and “disgraceful”.
Michael’s wife Corinna, in a 2021 Netflix documentary, had said that the family wants to remain private regarding his condition.
“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,” she said.
“We’re trying to carry on as a family, the way Michael liked it and still does. And we are getting on with our lives.
“Private is private, as he always said. 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.”
Schumacher’s son Mick is currently the Mercedes reserve driver in Formula One, after losing his seat at Haas
