Air Canada has been ordered to honour the hallucination. Photo / Supplied
As airlines increasingly turn to AI to field passenger questions, alarm bells have been raised after a hallucinating Air Canada chatbot landed the carrier with a $1000 warning.
Air Canada lost the small claims court case after a passenger said they had been misled on bereavement fare rules by an automated chatbot.
After the carrier tried and failed to disavow the fare terms quoted by the AI-powered service, they were ordered to pay CA$812 ($970) in damages and court fees.
Following the death of their grandmother, the passenger had been researching whether they could apply for bereavement fares retroactively, having already bought fares.
A screenshot of the chatbot’s response was taken to the Tribunal showing that the bot was under the impression you could. Its response sent the traveller to the refund claims process:
“Air Canada offers reduced bereavement fares if you need to…
#AirCanada
