New Mexico’s Supreme Court has fined attorney Stephen Aarons $5,000 and held him in contempt for including AI-generated, wholly fabricated witnesses and fictitious police testimony in a brief appealing his client’s murder conviction, according to a report from Reuters. The Wednesday filing determined that Aarons failed to “verify the factual claims and legal authority in his AI-generated brief.”
According to the court, the brief contained false testimony from entirely invented witnesses, as well as fabricated details regarding the shooter’s clothing and appearance. During an August hearing, Justice C. Shannon Bacon pressed Aarons on why he did not recognize the well-documented risks of artificial intelligence, noting that he had admitted to using ChatGPT under the impression it would produce a “bulletproof summary” of the trial. “Counsel, do you watch the news? Do you listen to the radio? Do you read anything about what’s going on in the world?” Justice Bacon said, as reported by Reuters. “Because the problem with lawyers relying on AI hallucinations is an above-the-fold story every single day.”
“I am remorseful but hopeful that the disciplinary board takes into account it was an honest mistake,” Aarons said in a statement to Reuters.