BC Lawyer Reprimanded For Citing Fake Cases Invented By ChatGPT

A B.C. lawyer has been ordered to pay costs for opposing counsel for the time they took to discover that two cases she cited as precedent were created by ChatGPT. CBC News reports: The cases would have provided compelling precedent for a divorced dad to take his children to China -- had they been real. But instead of savouring courtroom victory, the Vancouver lawyer for a millionaire embroiled in an acrimonious split has been told to personally compensate her client's ex-wife's lawyers for the time it took them to learn the cases she hoped to cite were conjured up by ChatGPT. In a decision released Monday, a B.C. Supreme Court judge reprimanded lawyer Chong Ke for including two AI 'hallucinations' in an application filed last December. The cases never made it into Ke's arguments; they were withdrawn once she learned they were non-existent.

Justice David Masuhara said he didn't think the lawyer intended to deceive the court -- but he was troubled all the same. 'As this case has unfortunately made clear, generative AI is still no substitute for the professional expertise that the justice system requires of lawyers,' Masuhara wrote in a 'final comment' appended to his ruling. 'Competence in the selection and use of any technology tools, including those powered by AI, is critical.'

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