ChatGPT LAWYER
2023
Lawyers from a New York law firm thought they had found the perfect and nearly free research assistant. They tasked ChatGPT with finding legal precedents to support their arguments. The AI performed brilliantly, delivering a list of compelling and persuasive court cases along with legal logic, quotations and internal citations. And the clever lawyers filed the papers to the court thinking this is just too easy. No need to pay for expensive legal research when AI does it for free.
There was just one problem—every single case was fake. None of them existed.
Hallucinating ChatGPT had simply invented all of it. When the opposing lawyers and the court could not find the cases, they became suspicious. The judge demanded proof, and the lawyers eventually revealed they had relied on AI without verifying it. Embarrrrasssssing.
The lawyers were fined $5,000 and were required to write letters of apology.