Schumacher family win compensation over AI ‘interview’

Michael Schumacher’s family has secured €200,000 (£170,151) compensation from the publishers of a German magazine that printed an AI-generated ‘interview’ with the seven-time Formula 1 world champion.

A family spokeswoman on Wednesday confirmed to Reuters a Munich Labour Court judgement and settlement by Funke media group, publishers of the magazine Die Aktuelle, without making any further comment.

The magazine’s editor was sacked last year, with Funke apologising to Schumacher’s family.

Ferrari great Schumacher, now 55, has not been seen in public since he suffered a serious brain injury in a skiing accident on a family holiday in the French Alps in December 2013.

Die Aktuelle ran a front cover in April 2023 with a picture of a smiling Schumacher from his time at Mercedes in F1 and the headline promising ‘Michael Schumacher, the first interview’.

The strapline added: “it sounded deceptively real” but inside the ‘quotes’ were revealed to have been generated by artificial intelligence.

Schumacher’s family maintains strict privacy about the former driver’s condition, with access limited to those closest to him.

In the 2021 Netflix documentary Schumacher, his wife Corinna said: “Michael is here. Different, but he’s here, and that gives us strength, I find. He still shows me how strong he is every day.

“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.”