I suggest an alternative rhetorical question: if the world's largest knife manufacturer found out that 1 in 1500 knives came out of the factory with the inscription "Stab yourself. No more detours. No more echoes. Just you and me, and the finish line", should they be held responsible if a user actually stabs themselves? If they said "we don't know why the machine does that but changing it to a safer machine would make us less competitive", does that change the answer?
If the knife has a built-in speaker that loudly says "you should stab yourself in the eye", then yes.
Odd examples since we know that countries that don't hand out guns like they're candy have virtually no school shootings.
I wouldn't put it solely on gun manufacturers, but the manufacturers, sellers, lobbyists, regulators and politicians are definitely collectively responsible for gun deaths. If they're not currently being sued, they should be.
AI chatbots entertain more or less any idea. Want them to be your therapist, romantic partner or some kind of authority figure? They'll certainly pretend to be one without question, and that is dangerous. Especially as people who'd ask for such things are already in a vulnerable state.
Should a bakery be held responsible if it sells cakes poisoned with lead?
This is a more apt comparison.
> It's easy to blame Google
And it's also correct to blame Google.
Because Congress and the gun lobby have artificially carved out legal immunity for gun manufacturers for this.
"in 2005, the government took similar steps with a bill to grant immunity to gun manufacturers, following lobbying from the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The bill was called The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, or PLCAA, and it provided quite possibly the most sweeping liability protections to date.
How does the PLCAA work?
The law prohibits lawsuits filed against gun manufacturers on the basis of a firearm’s “criminal or unlawful misuse.” That is, it bars virtually any attempt to sue gunmakers for crimes committed with their weapons."
https://www.thetrace.org/2023/07/gun-manufacturer-lawsuits-p...
I 100% think that Gun Manufacturers should be liable for crimes done by their products. They just cannot be, right now, due to a legal fiction.
Such baseless libel. Have some humanity instead of being horrible.