Ashley MacIsaac concert cancelled after AI wrongly accuses him of being sex offender

Cape Breton fiddler Ashley MacIsaac says he may have been defamed by Google after it recently produced an AI-generated summary falsely identifying him as a sex offender.

The Juno Award-winning musician said he learned of the online misinformation last week after a First Nation north of Halifax confronted him with the summary and cancelled a concert planned for Dec. 19.

“You are being put into a less secure situation because of a media company — that’s what defamation is,” MacIsaac said in a telephone interview with The Canadian Press, adding he was worried about what might have happened had the erroneous content surfaced while he was trying to cross an international border.

“If a lawyer wants to take this on (for free) … I would stand up because I’m not the first and I’m sure I won’t be the last.”

MacIsaac said the summary falsely asserted he had been convicted of a series of offences including sexual assault, internet luring, assaulting a woman and attempting to assault a minor. As well, he said the Google entry accused him of being listed on the national sex offender registry, which is also untrue.

“I could have been at a border and put in jail,” he said. “So something has to be figured out as far as what the AI companies are responsible for … and what they can prevent.”

First Nation apologizes

The 50-year-old virtuoso fiddler said he later learned the inaccurate claims were taken from online articles regarding a man in Atlantic Canada with the same last name.

Google Canada spokesperson Wendy Manton issued a statement saying Google’s “AI overviews” are frequently changing to show what she described as the most “helpful” information.

“When issues arise — like if our features misinterpret web content or miss some context — we use those examples to improve our systems, and may take action under our policies.”

Meanwhile, the Sipekne’katik First Nation issued a public apology to MacIsaac, saying in an online post that the cancellation was based on incorrect information.

“We deeply regret the harm this caused to your reputation and livelihood,” the message says. “Chief and council value your artistry, contribution to the cultural life of the Maritimes, and your commitment to reconciliation.”

As for the cancelled concert, MacIsaac says he’s looking forward to rescheduling the event. But he said he wanted things to settle down before setting a date.

“I don’t feel comfortable about going there right now because I don’t think the proper information can be disseminated within a week. It’s seen so many shares,” he said. “I didn’t want to bring any attention negatively to the community.”

He speculated about how the misinformation might have prompted the cancellation of a concert scheduled for earlier this year in Mexico.

MacIsaac said he doesn’t have the money to pay for a lawsuit that could take years to settle.

But when CBC News reached him by phone on Christmas Eve, he said he’d already received queries from law firms across the country interested in taking it on pro bono.

He says he’s considering his options in the hopes that he can prevent other people from experiencing something similar in the future.

“I’m telling you, this is not a nice place to be,” he said. “I’m sitting outside my grandmother’s going in for Christmas. This isn’t a conversation I want to have today — ‘Oh, yeah, somebody called me a sex offender.’”

No stranger to controversy

MacIsaac burst onto the music scene in the 1990s as a wildly talented teenager who blended traditional Celtic music with a high-energy, rocking style.

To be sure, he is no stranger to controversy.

During a 1999 concert in Halifax, he launched into a profanity-laced rant that ended the show and resulted in widespread cancellations of his gigs. And in early 1997, he attracted attention for discussing his sexual proclivities with a reporter and flashing his private parts during an appearance on a late-night U.S. talk show.

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But he hasn’t had any real run-ins with the law, aside from receiving an absolute discharge and no fine in 2001 for possessing marijuana in Saskatchewan. When Judge Linton Smith granted the discharge, he told MacIsaac’s lawyer, “The only condition I’d like to attach is if you could get my wife an autograph.”

When cannabis was legalized in Canada in October 2018, MacIsaac was the first in line at a Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. branch in Cape Breton, which was about to become the only legal place to buy recreational cannabis on the island.

“I don’t need to be a criminal anymore, and that’s a great feeling,” he said at the time. “And my new dealer is the prime minister!”