New Mexico lawyer held in contempt for ChatGPT fake testimony
2026-09-11
Quartz
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The New Mexico Supreme Court fined attorney Stephen Aarons $5,000 and held him in contempt after he submitted a murder appeal brief containing fabricated police testimony and witnesses generated by OpenAI's ChatGPT. The court cited his failure to verify the AI-generated content, raising concerns about AI misuse in legal proceedings.[AI generated]
Why's our monitor labelling this an incident or hazard?
An AI system (ChatGPT) was used to produce false testimony and fabricated witnesses, which were then submitted in a legal document. This misuse of AI directly caused harm by undermining the legal process and violating legal obligations. The court's response, including contempt and fines, confirms the harm occurred. Therefore, this event qualifies as an AI Incident due to the direct involvement of AI in causing a legal rights violation.[AI generated]