FEBRUARY 24, 2026 – As tech giants spend hundreds of billions of dollars to compete with applications and hardware in an AI-induced arms race, shareholders are pressing one of the industry’s leaders to explain what can be done to mitigate the proliferation of AI-generated misinformation on the company’s platforms.
A shareholder proposal filed at Alphabet Inc., owner of Google, cites research showing that Google’s Gemini search overview — now used daily by billions of people — spreads false claims nearly 17% of the time; Google’s Veo 3, which can generate hyperrealistic video, “has the potential to create disinformation on a catastrophic scale,” according to another assessment. By Alphabet’s own admission, so-called “hallucinations” are “a problem for all large language models across the tech industry.”
Google’s AI models have stirred controversy that could threaten its business, according to the proposal. In October 2025, the Gemma model was removed from Google’s AI Studio platform after a U.S. senator alleged that it fabricated “serious criminal allegations” about her. Amidst widespread media coverage, the senator advised Google: “Shut it down until you can control it.”
The shareholder proposal, filed by Vancity Investment Management, a Vancouver-based firm, with support from Open MIC, says that in addition to legal, financial and regulatory material posed to Alphabet, the proliferation of AI related falsehoods is creating a larger problem for society, what has been called “epistemic collapse” – a world in which users are increasingly unable to discern what is true or authentic.
“While Google’s policy guidelines aim to prohibit generative AI from producing harmful factual inaccuracies, shareholders question whether they are sufficiently effective at mitigating risks to the company amidst a proliferation of lawsuits and new regulation regarding generative AI,” the proposal says. “Without policies and practices that minimize generative AI falsehoods, there is considerable risk to Alphabet, and an ‘existential threat’ to generative AI technology itself.”
The shareholders ask Alphabet’s board of directors to commission a third-party assessment of actions the company could take to mitigate the proliferation of false information and report to shareholders with a summary of the outcome of the assessment. Unless challenged by Alphabet, the proposal will be voted on by shareholders at Alphabet’s annual meeting, which is traditionally held in early June.
