AI botched murder case: Australian lawyer apologizes for fabricated quotes and fake court decisions

In the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia, a senior lawyer and crown counsel admitted that the materials submitted to the court contained fabricated quotes and references to court decisions that never existed. The source of these errors was artificial intelligence, which the defense team turned to.

This is reported by the Associated Press.

"We deeply regret and feel ashamed of what happened," the lawyer said.

Due to false data, the consideration of the case of a minor accused of murder was delayed for a day. In the end, the court found the defendant not guilty by reason of mental state, but the course of the trial itself turned out to be seriously complicated.

The fake quotes were discovered by the judge's assistants, who could not find the specified decisions and demanded copies of them. The defense was forced to admit: the references and speeches are fiction.

This case is not the first. Similar "hallucinations" of artificial intelligence have already caused scandals in the USA and Great Britain. In 2023, American lawyers were even fined for submitting fictitious court precedents created by ChatGPT.

Recall that the Prime Minister of Sweden Ulf Kristersson came under a barrage of criticism after admitting that he regularly turns to artificial intelligence - in particular ChatGPT and the French LeChat - as a "second opinion" in his work as the head of the government.