Cohen claimed he was unaware that Bard was a generative AI service with the potential to generate misleading data.
Michael Cohen, who was formerly known as Donald Trump’s “fixer,” used Google Bard to discuss fictitious legal matters that were ultimately heard in a federal court. According to a report that was published by the New York Times on Friday, Cohen stated in court documents that were not sealed that he had sent his attorney documents that referenced fictitious cases, and that his lawyer subsequently forwarded the information on to Federal Judge. In the sworn declaration, Cohen is said to have written that he had failed to keep up with “emerging trends (and related risks) in legal technology.”
The papers was submitted by Cohen’s legal team in the form of a motion, which asked for an early termination of the court supervision that was associated with his campaign finance case from 2018, for which he was sentenced to three years in prison. Following the presentation of the legal documents to the federal court by David M. Schwartz, the attorney for Cohen, Judge Jesse M. Furman of the Federal District Court stated that he was having difficulty locating the three decisions that Schwartz had cited (via Cohen).
Schwartz was informed by Judge Furman that in the event that he was unable to provide proof of the instances, the attorney was required to provide “a comprehensive explanation of how the motion came to cite cases that do not exist and what role, if any, Mr. Cohen played in drafting or reviewing the motion before it was filed.” It is also necessary for Schwartz to provide an explanation as to why he should not be punished “for citing nonexistent cases to the court.” Cohen was a former attorney who, after pleading guilty to various charges, was disbarred from the legal profession.
Comes the Bard. Cohen stated that he was unaware that the artificial intelligence bot “was a generative text service that, like ChatGPT, could show citations and descriptions that looked real but actually were not.” Cohen also placed blame on his attorney, stating that he was unaware that Schwartz “would drop the cases into his submission wholesale without even confirming that they existed.”
Although the use of artificial intelligence chatbots by lawyers to cite hallucinated cases makes for easy humor, this error could have significant repercussions for a crucial case that could have political significance. It is anticipated that Cohen will be the most prominent witness in the criminal case that is being brought against Trump in Manhattan for allegedly fabricating company records. Using the mistake made by Bard, Trump’s legal team now has further ammunition to discredit the former fixer.
A civil action that took place earlier this year involved the use of made-up cases that were sourced using OpenAI’s chatbot. Cohen has joined the services of ChatGPT Lawyer Steven Schwartz, who cited these cases. Attorney Pras Michel, who represents the rapper Pras Michel of the Fugees, allegedly joined him. The artist made the accusation in October that his attorney had employed an artificial intelligence program in which he may have had a financial stake in order to construct his closing arguments.