A multimillion-dollar conspiracy trial that stretched across the worlds of politics and entertainment is now touching on the tech world with arguments that a defense attorney for a Fugees rapper bungled closing arguments by using an artificial intelligence program.
I saw an article from ars that tracked the AI company down, it’s registered to the same office as the lawyer, and immediately started advertising this case bragging about it being used in an actual trial, no mention of how much it fucked up and the client was guilty.
He’s got a pretty good shot at this, and the lawyer should 100% face consequences. Even if he just used it, but especially if he owns the AI company he used. Doubly so for not disclosing the connection or informing the client it was being used.
But how do you tell if the AI performed worse or better than the lawyer. What is the bar here for competence. What if it was a losing case regardless and this is just a way to exploit the system for a second trial.
That’s what the appeals process is for.
I don’t know about this particular lawyer, but I have heard that some lawyers will try novel court strategies, knowing that it’s a win-win situation. If the strategy works, then their clients benefit, and if the strategy doesn’t work, their clients get an appeal for having ineffective counsel where they normally wouldn’t have an appeal.
If a client gets an appeal for ineffective counsel how is that counsel not brought up before the bar for review? That seems like a death knell for a lawyer.
People don’t generally get sanctioned for making honest mistakes. I didn’t say that a lawyer would tank the case on purpose, just that they’d try a new strategy. If no lawyers were allowed to try new strategies without facing penalties, that also seems like a bad system.
Not sure if there is a procedure for when a lawyer is practicing, I have never heard of a bar referral after a ruling on a motion for ineffective assistance in NY, but I have heard of retiring attorneys landing on the grenade so to speak and writing affidavits claiming that anything they may have touched in the slightest was somehow deficient, spoiled or tainted by their involvement if it can get a shot at more billable work/appeal.
I had never heard that. Is there a name for that? Or do you have a place I can read more about it?
Well, the lawyer gave interviews after his client was guilty. Bragging about how instead of spending hours on it he only spent “seconds” and that the AI would mean he could have a lot more clients and make a lot more money.
So, it’s going to be pretty hard for him to now argue he put in just as much effort.
Did he help develop or train the AI? That upfront effort should perhaps be considered.
But that is like saying instead of spending hours on an essay I cut the time in half with ms word. Its just a tool. If the lawyer produced arguments with it and reviewed it then what’s the issue. And tbjs still doesn’t determine if the work presented was good or not.
Because he didn’t review it…
He used it “as is” so he could advertise his AI tool as “does it all by itself”.
It sounds like rather than advertising it as tool for lawyers, he’s advertising it to clients as a replacement for lawyers.
100% that is dumb.
But in all seriousness I think we all need a pocket lawyer.
Its one of those things that I think causes a ton if inequality. I think its too early but definitely in our lives we could all have a bunch of services in our pocket that are difficult to access now. But that’s not going to happen if we don’t reject this stuff as idiotic.
In my opinion, how good the AI performed is irrelevant. What is is the fact that an AI was used instead of the lawyer.
If it is proven that the lawyer used what the AI delivered verbatim then it doesn’t matter how good that text was. The client has the right to have a lawyer, not an AI pretending to be a lawyer.
But can they use an auto correct?
Autocorrect does single words and you usually review each word. Something like ChatGPT will generate an entire document for you, it’s up to you if you want to verify the correctness of everything in there, which most people don’t.
Auto correct can also fix sentence structure. You could replace every sentence with their suggestion. So what I’m trying to say is that its about how its used. A lot of people are shocked someone would use it to produce things on their behalf. I’m going the other way and saying if used correctly, what is produced is superior to things produced without it.
What is the bar here
I see what you did there
Good point. If a lawyer is stupid enough to use AI, he’s probably too stupid to be a good lawyer in the first place
I think its a good use. I think the idiotic thing is how it was used. It sounds like he didn’t validate it after which might just be unfamiliar with using new tech. Might be a lawyer looking to get a new trial. Might be just pure incompetence. But I still think its a good use if used correctly
In this case, it seems to be much worse, inventing reference cases and making nonsensical arguments.
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That was mentioned briefly in the article. I was about to look into it a little more but I got side tracked. Thanks!
That dude on the right looks like low tier android or somethin.
Low-tier cosmetic alterations at bargain prices tend to have that result, I guess?
He looks like the alien from Star Trek Insurrection that is obsessed with being young forever and stretches his skin out
Yeah, I never though actual humans could fall into the uncanny valley.
That gray dude also looks ai generated.
Weekend at Bernie’s 12?
He looks like the mangled villain in Red Dragon. You know, the guy Hannibal the Cannibal fucked up with a piece of glass?
… aol still exists…? Huh. TIL.
Oh how the mighty have fallen
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