Michael Schumacher family to take legal action over fake AI interview

Michael Schumacher’s family plans to take legal action against a German magazine that ran an AI-generated interview with the Formula One legend.

German outlet Die Aktuelle ran a front cover spread promising an exclusive interview with Schumacher, who has not been seen in public since suffering a serious brain injury in a December 2013 skiing accident.

The magazine claimed it had the first interview with the seven-time F1 champion, promising “No meagre, nebulous half-sentences from friends. But answers from him! By Michael Schumacher, 54!”

Only after the ‘interview’ with Schumacher in its magazine is it revealed the article has been generated by an AI chatbot.

A Schumacher family spokesperson confirmed to ESPN that legal action will be taken.

Since the skiing accident, the family has gone to great lengths to protect the privacy of Michael, and his medical condition is unknown.

He is believed to be at the family’s home in Switzerland.

Die Aktuelle has a history with the Schumachers.

In 2014, the magazine posted a picture of Michael and wife Corinna on the front cover, with the headline “Awake”, only for the piece in question to have been about people who have awoken from comas in the past.

The magazine also won a legal case against the Schumachers the next year after a front cover saying “a new love” had entered Corinna’s life, only for the article to be about the couple’s daughter, Gina.

Corinna Schumacher has spoken about her husband’s condition only at the end of a Netflix documentary about his F1 career, titled “Schumacher.”

“Michael is here. Different, but he’s here, and that gives us strength, I find,” she said.

“We’re together. We live together at home. We do therapy. We do everything we can to make Michael better and to make sure he’s comfortable. And to simply make him feel our family, our bond. And no matter what, I will do everything I can. We all will.

“We’re trying to carry on as a family, the way Michael liked it and still does. And we are getting on with our lives. ‘Private is private’, as he always said.

“It’s very important to me that he can continue to enjoy his private life as much as possible. Michael always protected us, and now we are protecting Michael.”

Schumacher’s son, Mick, raced in F1 for the Haas team in 2021 and 2022, but is without a race seat in 2023. Mick Schumacher is the reserve driver for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton, who shares the record with Mick’s father on seven world titles.