The 3 Legal Risks That Could Tank Your Business

March 13, 2026

It sounds like the perfect get-out-of-jail-free card: “I’m so sorry for that error, the AI wrote it!” Unfortunately, that excuse works about as well today as the dog ate my homework in third grade. While AI is an incredible tool, you are still the one holding the leash. If your AI makes a mess, you’re the one who has to clean it up.

Let’s break down why AI makes mistakes and how those slips can turn into real-world headaches for your business.

Why Does AI Make Mistakes?

To understand the why, you have to understand what an AI actually is. Most people think of it as a super-powered encyclopedia, but it’s actually more like autocomplete on steroids.

When you ask an AI a question, it isn't thinking or fact-checking. Instead, it is playing a game of probability. It has "read" trillions of sentences from the internet and books, and it uses math to guess which word should come next.

The math problem - If you type "My favorite food is...", the AI knows that "pizza" is a statistically likely next word, while "cardboard" is not.
The hallucination - Sometimes, the math points the AI in the wrong direction. It might confidently state a fact that sounds perfectly natural but is completely made up. This is called a hallucination.

The AI is just solving a math equation; it doesn’t know (or care) if the answer is true. That’s your job.

3 Ways an AI Mistake Can Hurt Your Business

Because the AI is technically acting as your "representative," its mistakes are legally your mistakes. Here are the three biggest risks:

Defamation

Imagine your AI writes a blog post claiming a competitor uses illegal materials to make their products. The AI doesn't know it’s lying; it's just crunching numbers. However, you could be sued for libel for spreading those lies.

Bad Promises

Many companies use AI chatbots for customer service. If that bot gets "eager to please" and promises a customer a 90% discount or a lifetime warranty you don't actually offer, courts are increasingly ruling that you have to honor that promise.

Accidental Theft

Because AI predicts the most likely next word, it can sometimes accidentally spit out an existing book or article word-for-word. This can leave you inadvertently plagiarizing someone else's work and facing copyright infringement charges.

We’ll Help You Use AI Safely

AI isn't the bad guy—it’s just a tool that needs a human supervisor. At First Column IT, we help you navigate these new waters. We ensure your technology is optimized and secure, so you can enjoy the speed of AI without the legal or security nightmares.

Ready to use AI the right way? Give us a call at (571) 470-5594 to get started.

‍

The Password Manager Boosts Organizational Security

There are so many threats out there that there are positions dedicated within companies to protecting network infrastructures and managing cybersecurity strategy. This alone should be enough to get you to take it seriously. With your employees controlling the “keys to the castle,” i.e., passwords, you need to make sure that you have a solid password strategy in place so as to not inadvertently put your company at risk.

February 13, 2023

How Does AI Influence a Business’ Ability to Produce?

Now that AI tools are more publicly accessible than ever before, the question of whether or not it’s good for business looms ever closer. These tools are limited in their capacity to help, but they do show enormous potential that could be indicative of success in the future. Let’s go over some of the questions people have about AI tools.

February 10, 2023

How Can T-Mobile’s Security Woes Help Your Efforts?

Bad news for T-Mobile users, they’ve suffered another data breach. Hackers have gained access to customer data for nearly 37 million individuals, including both pre-paid and subscription-based accounts. Let’s look at what has happened and what knowledge you might apply to your own network security practices.

Welcome to the First Column IT Tech Blog