In the USA, the court harshly punished lawyers for fabricated cases created by AI
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, sanctioned two lawyers for submitting court documents that contained references to non-existent court cases. The court rejected their explanations that the errors were merely typographical and warned all legal professionals about the necessity of promptly acknowledging instances when errors in documents arose due to undetected AI "hallucinations," writes Reuters.
In its first ruling dedicated to lawyers' responsibility for errors related to AI use, the court reprimanded attorneys Mike Seti and William Rounds and imposed a fine of $2,500 on each.
A panel of three judges also suspended Seti and Rounds from practicing in the appellate court for six months. Additionally, the court ruled that for the next two years they must disclose in their filings whether generative artificial intelligence was used, and if so, specify the name of the respective program.
Seti and Rounds, representing plaintiffs in an immigration case, claimed the errors were due to typographical mistakes and denied that AI use was the cause. They did not promptly respond to journalists' requests for comments.
The court noted that the source of the errors "ultimately does not matter" for its legal analysis.
"Lawyers do not need advanced technologies to fabricate references to court decisions and make obviously false and unsubstantiated statements," emphasized the panel of judges.
The appellate panel concluded that both lawyers "breached their duty of candor to the court" by failing to acknowledge what the court deemed obvious use of artificial intelligence.
Regarding Mike Seti, the court separately noted that he resorted to "subtle deceit" by correcting a document containing fabricated court cases without disclosing that these references were fabricated.
The court stressed that lawyers are not prohibited from using artificial intelligence, but they have a professional and ethical duty to verify the accuracy of all documents submitted to the court.
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