Air Canada has been ordered to give a refund to a grieving passenger who was misled by an airline’s chatbot hallucinating the airline’s bereavement travel policy.

As reported by Ars Technica (Air Canada must honor refund policy invented by airline’s chatbot, written by Ashley Belanger and available here), on the day Jake Moffatt’s grandmother died, Moffat immediately visited Air Canada’s website to book a flight from Vancouver to Toronto. Unsure of how Air Canada’s bereavement rates worked, Moffatt asked Air Canada’s chatbot to explain.

The chatbot provided inaccurate information, encouraging Moffatt to book a flight immediately and then request a refund within 90 days, as follows:

“If you need to travel immediately or have already travelled and would like to submit your ticket for a reduced bereavement rate, kindly do so within 90 days of the date your ticket was issued by completing our Ticket Refund Application form.”

That was in direct conflict with Air Canada’s policy, which explicitly stated that the airline will not provide refunds for bereavement travel after the flight is booked.

Moffatt attempted to follow the chatbot’s advice and request a refund but was shocked that the request was rejected – even after emailing a copy of the screenshot from the chatbot that set out the 90-day window to request a reduced rate, and even after an Air Canada representative responded and admitted the chatbot had provided “misleading words.”

Air Canada argued that because the chatbot response elsewhere linked to a page with the actual bereavement travel policy, Moffatt should have known bereavement rates could not be requested retroactively. Instead of a refund, the best Air Canada would do was to promise to update the chatbot and offer Moffatt a $200 coupon to use on a future flight, which Moffatt refused, instead filing a small claims complaint in Canada’s Civil Resolution Tribunal.

In the ruling, Tribunal Member Christopher C. Rivers stated: “Air Canada argues it cannot be held liable for information provided by one of its agents, servants, or representatives – including a chatbot. It does not explain why it believes that is the case. In effect, Air Canada suggests the chatbot is a separate legal entity that is responsible for its own actions. This is a remarkable submission.”

In other words, blame the chatbot, not us.

Continuing, he said: “While a chatbot has an interactive component, it is still just a part of Air Canada’s website. It should be obvious to Air Canada that it is responsible for all the information on its website. It makes no difference whether the information comes from a static page or a chatbot.”

Ultimately, Tribunal Member Rivers ordered Air Canada to pay Mr. Moffatt a total of $812.02, which included damages, pre-judgment interest under the Court Order Interest Act, and Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) fees.

What’s the state of the chatbot now? When Ars visited Air Canada’s website on Friday, there appeared to be no chatbot support available, suggesting that Air Canada has disabled the chatbot. Good idea.

Hat tip to Dr. Gavin Manes for the heads up on the story!

So, what do you think? Are you surprised that Air Canada would fight a claim based on information hallucinated by the airline’s chatbot? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

Image created using Bing Image Creator Powered by DALL-E, using the term “robot using a website communicating with a chatbot”.

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