New Mexico lawyer fined for AI-generated fake testimony in appeal

The New Mexico Supreme Court has fined a defense attorney $5,000 and held him in contempt for submitting a murder appeal brief that contained fabricated witness testimony and false police statements generated by the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT. The court found that attorney Stephen Aarons failed to verify the accuracy of the AI-generated content before filing it. The court's ruling, issued on Wednesday, stated that the filing contained "false testimony from wholly fabricated witnesses." The justices also noted that Aarons had demonstrated a "lack of remorse and a lack of concern for his client." In addition to the fine, the court announced it will refer Aarons to the state's attorney disciplinary board for a formal investigation. Aarons, a private attorney based in Santa Fe, was handling the appeal of Oscar Renee Sandoval, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. In a statement, Aarons explained that he used ChatGPT to summarize trial proceedings when he took on the appeal last year. He said he did not understand the degree to which AI could "hallucinate" facts.