22 May 2024 , 16:10
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Michael Schumacher's family have been awarded £170,239 in compensation after they took a magazine to court over a fake interview they published with the F1 legend.
In April last year, Die Aktuelle published an interview with Schumacher, though it transpired it had been created using AI. The German weekly women's magazine falsely presented the interview as Schumacher's first since his skiing accident in 2013.
The seven-time world champion has been kept out of the public eye by his family since being left with serious injuries in the incident. But Die Aktuelle surprisingly featured a photo of Schumacher smiling broadly on their front cover in an edition last year.
The image was accompanied by a headline claiming they had a "first interview" with the driving legend since his injury. The article claimed Schumacher could stand "by myself and even slowly walk a few steps".
It also insisted the stricken star's family are all "very sad" about his accident. There is no indication that any of the claims in Die Akutelle's controversial article are true. Another tagline claimed the article "sounds deceptively real", hinting at the use of AI.
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The article featured no byline but the anonymous author did confirm later in the story that the quotes were generated using AI. Schumacher's family were left outraged by the article and quickly initiated legal action against the publisher, Funke Mediengruppe, for the misleading publication.
Funke fired the magazine's editor-in-chief Ann Hoffmann and issued an apology. Despite that though, Ubermedien has reported that the Munich labour court (Landesarbeitsgericht) has ruled in favor of the Schumachers and ordered Funke to pay £170,239 in damages.
Schumacher has been kept out of the public eye since being involved in a skiing accident in 2013 (AFP/Getty Images)It is also claimed that the court found that the dismissal of Hoffmann was not legally valid. Hoffmann successfully argued against wrongful termination, with the court ruling that her firing was “not legally valid.”
At the time of Hoffmann's sacking, Funke managing director Bianca Pohlmann said: "This tasteless and misleading article should never have appeared. It in no way corresponds to the standards of journalism that we - and our readers - expect from a publisher like Funke."
The article also caused a storm in the F1 paddock and was widely condemned by many. Schumacher's former team-mate Johnny Herbert led the criticism and blasted the magazine a month after publication.
"That German magazine interview was appalling," he told ICE36. "This is the modern, mad world of AI (artificial intelligence) and how dangerous it can be. That was a prime example of using it in completely the wrong way.
"I can understand the fascination with Michael because it is a story that has not had an ending yet. There is an endless fascination about Michael. I don’t have any contact with the family. It is all kept very tight."