Google Bard Allegedly Generated Fake Legal Citations in Michael Cohen Case

December 12, 2023

Michael Cohen, previously a lawyer for Donald Trump, alleges that he employed Google Bard, an AI chatbot, to generate supposed legal case citations. These seemingly false citations were inadvertently integrated into a court motion by Cohen's attorney, David M. Schwartz. This incident underscores escalating risks within the realm of legal technology, as AI-produced content expands its reach into professional arenas. It emphasizes the need for responsible AI practices and governance mechanisms to prevent such mishaps and ensure safe and secure AI implementation.

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Matched TAIM controls

Suggested mapping from embedding similarity (not a formal assessment). Browse all TAIM controls

MAP 4.1 — similarity 0.570, rank 1. TAIM detail and related incidents →
GOVERN 4.2 — similarity 0.559, rank 2. TAIM detail and related incidents →
MEASURE 2.10 — similarity 0.556, rank 3. TAIM detail and related incidents →

Alleged deployer: michael-cohen, david-m.-schwartz
Alleged developer: google-bard, google
Alleged harmed parties: michael-cohen, david-m.-schwartz

Source

Data from the AI Incident Database (AIID). Cite this incident: https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/623

Data source

Incident data is from the AI Incident Database (AIID).

When citing the database as a whole, please use:

McGregor, S. (2021) Preventing Repeated Real World AI Failures by Cataloging Incidents: The AI Incident Database. In Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Conference on Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAI-21). Virtual Conference.

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