Judge interrupts hearing after man uses AI-created “lawyer”: “I don’t like being deceived”

A hearing in the United States was interrupted after the judge realized that the plaintiff was using an AI-generated “lawyer”.

The hearing took place on March 26. While the judges were listening to Jerome Dewald, the plaintiff in a labor lawsuit, Judge Sallie Manzanet-Daniels informed the court that the man had submitted “a video to present his argument”.

Then, the “lawyer” appeared on the video, wearing a shirt and sweater, smiling and speaking in the recording. “May the court allow me to speak, I am here today to present my argument to a panel of five judges,” he began.

Quickly, the video playback was interrupted by the judge, who asked the man: “Wait. Is this the lawyer for the case?” Jerome quickly admitted: “I generated this. I generated this. It’s not a real person.”

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“It would have been nice to know this when you made the request. You didn’t inform me, sir. I received the request and you’ve already appeared before this court and testified verbally in the past,” the judge continued.

“You even went to my assistant’s office and had in-person conversations with our team for over 30 minutes. Okay. I don’t like being deceived.”

To Associated Press (AP), he said he didn’t want to cause trouble and only thought about using AI to present his argument because he didn’t have a lawyer to represent him in the case. With the AI, the “lawyer” could deliver his speech without speech errors.

“The court was really upset about this,” Jerome said. According to AP, he wrote an apology letter to the court after the hearing. The case is still being reviewed by the court.

Photo and video: YouTube @NYSAD1. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.