If Google's AI Tells You Alaska's Wild Copper River Is Safe For Swimming, Is Google At Fault When You Die?

COPPER RIVER COUNTRY JOURNAL 

German Court Says Google Is Responsible If Somebody Is Hurt Using AI Misinformation 

Google Says It's Not Liable 

Who's To Blame If It's Wrong Stuff About The Raging Copper River? 

JUNE 15, 2026: If there's one thing that Copper River Valley people learn early on, it's that the Copper is a raging, muddy, dangerous river. We all know that. We've all heard the stories of boaters falling into the Copper and drowning, or the dip netters who have died down in Chitina, and the close calls from falling into the river at the fish wheel...

Turn of the century gold miners died in the Copper – and all its tributaries – at such a rapid clip that chroniclers of their escapades sometimes only gave a short mention in their many memoirs of yet another fellow traveler who had drowned in Alaska. 

You don't mess with the Copper. It's no surprise if you die as a result. The real story is when you manage to survive its cold and familiar waters after falling in. 

The intractable Copper River. (Photo, Neil Hannan) 

THE COPPER IS FAR MORE REAL THAN ARTIFICIAL 

But how do you know if the Copper is safe? What if you're visiting Alaska and have a plastic kayak on top of your Subaru, all ready for action, and Google the river, looking for affirmation that this will all work out great? 

Artificial Information on the internet is so common nowadays that AI answers pop up, right away, on the Google Search engine. Some are correct. Others aren't.

To protect itself from the many errors of AI answers, at the bottom of the searched response, Google now includes the protective statement: 

"AI responses may make mistakes." 

GERMANY DOESN'T LIKE MISTAKES 

In Germany, the courts don't think that's enough. Germans don't like 'mistakes.' A German court just ruled that errors that generate false statements that result in damages are the fault of Google.

The German smackdown of Google stemmed from two heavy-hitting publishers, who found out that Google's AI baselessly said they were scammers and fraudsters – although they weren't. Publishers may have deep pockets for taking on Google. But what about the rest of us? Dangerous possibilities of errors exist outside the rarified world of wealthy business people who have the ability to fight back in court. And outside of Germany – for example in the cruelly isolated world of wilderness Alaska.