Aarons said he hadn’t told his client directly that he was caught using ChatGPT on the case because he’s currently serving life in prison.

He got called out on this by the judge, too.

According to the order, the judges found Aarons to be in direct contempt of court, referred him to the Disciplinary Board for further consideration, and barred from appearing before the court pending the outcome of the board’s investigation. They also threw him off the case in question and assigned a public defender to his former client.

If they don’t feel the consequences themselves, lawyers will just continue to use LLMs to do their research.

This is another example why we need LLMs to be required to cite sources.

Last I checked, submitting false testimony was a crime. If these lawyer stop getting slaps on the wrist, the slop legal work will stop.

It seems whatever actions courts are taking, it’s not enough if it keeps happening.

Aarons was sanctioned $5,000

How much do lawyers charge to defend a murder charge? I’m guessing a lot more than that.

“It’s little comfort to know that my stupidity is what brings us together this afternoon,” New Mexico attorney Stephen D. Aarons said in a hearing last month before five judges. He “assumed” ChatGPT would generate a “bulletproof summary of proceedings.” Instead, ChatGPT generated false testimony from “wholly fabricated witnesses,” according to an order of direct contempt from the New Mexico Supreme Court.

Aarons’ reasoning for trusting ChatGPT, he said in the August hearing, was that he’d heard of doctors using AI for medical research.

In the past, I’ve advocated for people to not use AI. I think I’ve changed my mind just now.

Everyone should be required to use AI - that way, we can see how stupid they are when they don’t check it.