US lawyer files murder-case appeal citing witnesses invented by ChatGPT and is fined
Prepared by Sintelligent with the help of SI. Publication time restored from the build log. . Updated: .
SI is a powerful assistant, but responsibility for checking its output stays with the human; courts are reinforcing this with fines.
The New Mexico Supreme Court fined Santa Fe lawyer Steven Arons $5,000, found him in contempt of court and referred the case to a disciplinary board. The appeal in the case of Oscar Sandoval, convicted of murder and sentenced to life, contained testimony from nonexistent police officers and witnesses generated by ChatGPT. Arons explained that he used the chatbot to summarize trial materials and did not know that SI could "hallucinate".
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