When Algorithms Mislead: Refining Situational Crisis Communication Theory for AI-mediated Accountability.
When Algorithms Mislead: Refining Situational Crisis Communication Theory for AI-mediated Accountability.
D. Nwogwugwu
TLDR
This study examines Moffatt v. Air Canada 2024 BCCRT 149, the first publicly reported Canadian tribunal ruling to assign organizational liability for misleading information by a customer-facing AI chatbot and identifies a mismatch between Air Canada’s deflection-based response and the rebuild suggestion of the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) for high attribution crises.
Abstract
The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into stakeholder-facing organizational and crisis communication has created a crisis cluster where the immediate crisis cause is a non-human agent. This has created accountability ambiguities which current crisis communication frameworks do not fully address. This study examines Moffatt v. Air Canada 2024 BCCRT 149, the first publicly reported Canadian tribunal ruling to assign organizational liability for misleading information by a customer-facing AI chatbot. Drawing on data from the full Tribunal record, Air Canada’s responses and a content analysis of 47 news articles, the study traces a three-phase crisis lifecycle and identifies a mismatch between Air Canada’s deflection-based response and the rebuild suggestion of the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) for high attribution crises.