Schumacher Family Awarded €200,000 Compensation for ‘AI Interview’

A German magazine that said an AI-generated interview with the Formula One great was genuinely an exclusive gave Michael Schumacher’s family €200,000 ($217,000).

A front cover featuring a smiling Michael Schumacher and the caption “Michael Schumacher, the first interview” was published by Die Aktuelle in April 2023.

The tagline also stated that “it sounded deceptively real,” but it was later disclosed that the “quotes” were artificial intelligence-generated.

Since sustaining severe brain damage in a skiing accident on a family vacation in the French Alps in December 2013, the 55-year-old German has not been spotted in public.

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The article’s conclusion disclosed that it was created by artificial intelligence (AI). The Schumacher family filed a lawsuit, and the Munich Labor Court verified the compensation, which the family confirmed to ESPN.

Funke Media Group, which fired the editor-in-chief in charge of the article’s publication and issued an apology to the Schumacher family last year, paid the compensation. It comes to about GBP 170,000. 

The Schumachers have taken great care to protect Michael’s privacy since the accident, and access is strictly monitored. He’s thought to be at the family’s Swiss residence.

Even in a recent Netflix documentary on his life and career—during which he won seven world championships, 91 races, and became the most successful driver in the sport—the family remained mum about his ailment.

The Schumachers have a past with Die Aktuelle. The magazine featured a photo of Michael and his wife Corinna on the front cover in 2014 under the heading “Awake,” yet the article in question discussed people who had previously woken from comas.

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The next year, after a front cover story about “a new love” that had entered Corinna’s life, the magazine again prevailed in a lawsuit against the Schumachers; however, the story focused on the couple’s daughter Gina.