US judge orders lawyers to sign AI pledge warning 'they make stuff up'

Updated ago
Artificial Intelligence words are seen in this illustration taken March 31, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
(Reuters) - A federal judge in Texas is now requiring lawyers in cases before him to certify that they did not use artificial intelligence to draft their filings without a human checking their accuracy.
U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr of the Northern District of Texas issued the requirement on Tuesday, and appears to be the first federal judge to do so. He was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.
In a notice about the requirement on his Dallas court's website, Starr said generative AI tools like ChatGPT are "incredibly powerful" and can be used in the law in other ways, but they should not be used for legal briefing.
"These platforms in their current states are prone to hallucinations and bias. On hallucinations, they make stuff upeven quotes and citations," the statement said.
The judge also said that while attorneys swear an oath to uphold the law and represent their clients, the AI platforms do not.
"Unbound by any sense of duty, honor, or justice, such programs act according to computer code rather than conviction, based on programming rather than principle," the notice said.
Starr issued the requirement days after another federal judge in Manhattan threatened a lawyer with sanctions over a court brief that included citations to bogus cases generated by ChatGPT.
Attorney Steven Schwartz of Levidow, Levidow & Oberman said in a sworn statement filed last week that he "greatly regrets" relying on the AI tool and was "unaware of the possibility that its contents could be false." Schwartz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel will hold a June 8 hearing on whether Schwartz should be sanctioned.
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Wednesday, May 31, 2023 at 3:37 pm

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