Chief Justice John Roberts focused his year-end report on the role of artificial intelligence in the legal profession and declined to comment on legal controversies related to former President Donald Trump.
politiko report SCOTUS Chief Justice John Roberts offered a nuanced view of the increasing integration of artificial intelligence into the legal profession in a late 2023 report. His report avoided particularly high-profile Trump-related controversies and instead focused on the impact of AI on the judicial system.
Special Counsel Jack Smith speaks to reporters in Washington, Friday, June 9, 2023. Former President Donald Trump faces 37 felonies related to mishandling classified documents, according to an indictment unsealed Friday. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Republican presidential candidate former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a campaign rally at the Reno Sparks Convention Center on December 17, 2023 in Reno, Nevada. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Roberts said he believes the justice system will be “significantly impacted by AI” as it becomes more adopted by law firms, attorney clients, and judges. Acknowledging the many applications of AI in law, he said, “Legal research may soon become unimaginable without AI. It is clear that there is great potential to dramatically increase access. But it is equally clear that there is a risk of violating privacy rights and dehumanizing the law.”
Roberts also addressed the challenges of using AI in the legal profession, noting a serious mistake in which a lawyer using AI mistakenly cited a case that did not exist. Roberts added to this that he thinks using AI is “always a bad idea.”
Breitbart News previously reported on a lawyer who used ChatGPT to create a legal brief filled with fabricated lawsuits, only to suffer a fallout after the AI tool “hallucinated” him.
The document cites more than a dozen court decisions, including Miller v. United Airlines, Martinez v. Delta Air Lines, and Varghese v. China Southern Airlines. However, these court decisions were nowhere to be found because ChatGPT, an AI, completely fabricated them. When an AI chatbot like ChatGPT composes information, Referenced In the technology industry, it is considered a “hallucination.” It is very common for ChatGPT and other similar tools to suffer from such “illusions”.
Schwartz claimed in his affidavit that he used the chatbot to “supplement” his research related to the case. “I didn't realize that was a possibility.” [ChatGPT’s] The content may be false,” he wrote. Schwartz's screenshots reveal that he questioned ChatGPT about the veracity of the incidents it cited. In its affirmative response, AI argued that the judgment could be found in “authoritative legal databases” such as Westlaw and LexisNexis.
Schwartz expressed regret, saying, “I deeply regret using ChatGPT and will never use it again unless its authenticity is fully verified.”
Breitbart News recently reported that former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen made the same mistake.
This false quote was used by Cohen's attorney, David Schwartz, in a motion filed with Federal Judge Jesse M. Furman. new york times report Friday. After serving time and complying with the terms of his release, Cohen asked the judge in his motion to terminate his court supervision of his case early, according to the report. He pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations in 2018.
Cohen said in a sworn statement that he did not realize that Google Bard was a “generated text service, similar to ChatGPT, that can display quotes and descriptions that appear to be genuine but are not.” He also said he was unaware that attorneys would submit fake citations to the court without confirming their existence.
Roberts emphasized the subtleties and complexities involved in judicial decisions, in contrast to his famous statement during his 2005 confirmation hearing that a judge's role was to “call balls and strikes.” He writes: “Legal decisions often involve gray areas that still require the application of human judgment. I predict that human judges will be around for some time.”
In his report, Roberts remained notably silent about the Supreme Court's involvement in ongoing disputes surrounding former President Donald Trump, including his eligibility to vote in the 2024 presidential election and the possibility of a criminal trial. Rather than commenting on political cases like former President Trump's, Roberts highlighted technological innovations the court has adopted during the coronavirus pandemic, such as video conference hearings. He stressed that continuing these practices could help courts “ensure increased efficiency.”
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering free speech and online censorship issues.
