AI Can Bite You in the ***

AI hallucinates. Everyone knows that. At least I think they know that.

A New York attorney (what is it with attorneys and AI?) had a client who was involved in a lawsuit regarding a disputed loan. So far, so good.

His brief to the judge was, apparently, written using AI. Again, maybe, not a problem.

But then he did not verify the AI’s citations, which we know is often where AI hallucinates.

The judge, was not, shall we say amused.

So what does this genius lawyer do? He uses AI to write a brief explaining his AI usage.

AND, he did blame people who worked for him for using the AI.

“This case add yet another unfortunate chapter to the story of artificial intelligence misuse in the legal profession”, the judge lamented.

Of course this lawyer’s opponent can use these self-inflicted wounds against the hapless lawyer.

In this case, opposing counsel asked the judge to sanction the lawyer.

During oral arguments the attorney dug a deeper hole claiming he didn’t use AI.

Apparently dozens of lawyers have been CAUGHT using AI – caught due to errors.

In one case, lawyers at Morgan & Morgan, a law firm with more than a thousand attorneys, were admonished in Wyoming court for citing at least nine instances of fake case law.

I guess that is one way to create legal precedent – just make it up. That probably won’t work though.

Two thoughts.

If you work with outside counsel, you should ask them about their policies regarding the use of AI in working on projects for you.

Once the fess up to the use of AI, then ask them what the billing rate for ChatGPT is. My guess that at least some law firms are billing for work that AI did at the attorney’s normal hourly rate for the number of hours it would have taken the attorney without the use of AI – just saying.

Credit: Futurism

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