New York lawyer admits using AI chatbot for legal research that produced false information

A New York lawyer admitted to using an AI chatbot, ChatGPT, for legal research, which produced false information. The lawyer claimed that he was unaware of the false content produced by the chatbot.

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A New York lawyer is facing a court hearing for using false information produced by AI chatbot, ChatGPT in a case filing. Essentially, the lawyer, a colleague of another lawyer representing the plaintiff in an airline injury, used ChatGPT in referencing previous cases as a precedent in the brief to move forward with the case. However, the airline’s lawyers submitted to the Judge that they could not find the cases referenced in the brief. Judge Castel wrote in an order that six of the referenced cases appeared to be false and requested explanations from the plaintiff’s legal team. Steven A Schwartz, who did the legal research, admitted using ChatGPT for referencing but that the plaintiff’s lawyer, Peter LoDuca, was not part of the research and was not aware of that. Steven A Schwartz further claimed that he was unaware of the content being false and deeply regretted relying on the chatbot. Schwartz, also attached screenshots of the conversation between himself and the chatbot to prove that the chatbot produced the references.