Nine years after his terrible skiing accident, few people can claim to know how Michael Schumacher is doing. So when a magazine claims to have done an exclusive interview when it comes to statements invented by an AI, it’s scandalous.
Fans of the seven-time F1 world champion are angry, and the family intends to file a complaint.
AI-generated interview not going through
On December 29, 2013, Michael Schumacher hit the slopes of the resort of Méribel in the Alps. Unfortunately, the latter has a very bad fall which causes him serious injuries and cerebral connections. Since then, news of the German champion has been very rare, in particular because his family wishes to preserve him.
However, last weekend, the magazine Die Aktuelle announces having obtained the first intervention of Michael Schumacher since his accident. In the pages of the magazine, we therefore find various questions about his condition, declarations from the former pilot of the type “my life has completely changed”, in short, everything that can be expected from such an article. The problem is that, in reality, none of this is true. The interview was indeed generated using an AI called Character.ai.
The use of artificial intelligence is mentioned in fine print, but that is not enough to defuse the situation. The outraged reactions were numerous on the other side of the Rhine, but not only. The information was relayed by ESPN, and the whole world reacted to this affair. We should also talk about all this again soon, since Michael Schumacher’s family has decided to file a complaint against the magazine, which revives the subject of AI regulation.
A state of health kept secret
For nearly ten years, only a few people really know how Michael Schumacher is doing. There is his family, of course, but also some relatives, including Jean Todt, the pilot’s former boss. In 2021, the former team principal of Ferrari and ex-president of the FIA had indicated that thanks to the work of the doctors and the help of Corinna (his wife), Michael Schumacher retains the sequelae, but which are doomed to slowly s ‘mitigate.
A neurosurgeon named Nicolas Acciari specified in 2020 that the champion suffered from muscular atrophy and osteoporosis. The doctor reacted to the announcement of the specialized magazine Contro Copertina, which indicated that the former pilot had been hospitalized for an intervention to help him regenerate his nervous system.
Anyway, apart from a few handpicked people, no one knows how Michael Schumacher is doing in concrete terms. However, the reaction of the German and international public to Die Aktuelle shows that the seven-time world champion still retains an immense aura.
Sources: Eurosport, The Parisian
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