New Mexico lawyer fined for filing with ChatGPT-generated material
The Supreme Court of the U.S. state of New Mexico fined attorney Stephen Aarons $5,000 and found him in contempt of court for filing an appellate document containing fabricated police testimony and nonexistent witnesses. As The Guardian World reports, the attorney did not verify materials prepared with the help of ChatGPT.
Court sanction
According to the court, the document contained false testimony from entirely fictitious witnesses. The judges also said that Aarons demonstrated a lack of remorse and insufficient concern for his client’s interests. The court is to refer the attorney’s case to a disciplinary body for review.
Aarons, a private attorney from Santa Fe, handled the appeal of Oscar Rene Sandoval. Sandoval pleaded not guilty to the murder of the mother of his children, but he was sentenced to life imprisonment last year. The appeal proceedings are ongoing, and on September 2 the case was transferred to public defender Kim Chavez Cook.
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The attorney’s explanation
Aarons explained that he used ChatGPT to summarize trial materials when he agreed to handle the appeal last year. According to him, he did not realize how much artificial intelligence could fabricate facts.
At a hearing on August 21, the attorney said that he uploaded a computer-generated transcript and other case materials to ChatGPT, expecting to receive a “flawless account.” Last month, the state Supreme Court required him to explain the appearance of fabricated passages in the main appellate document. Among them, in the court’s assessment, were invented claims that the shooter was wearing dark trousers and a white shirt. Aarons called it an honest mistake and said that he regretted it.
