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Incident 615: Colorado Lawyer Filed a Motion Citing Hallucinated ChatGPT Cases

Description: A Colorado Springs attorney, Zachariah Crabill, mistakenly used hallucinated ChatGPT-generated legal cases in court documents. The AI software provided false case citations, leading to the denial of a motion and legal repercussions for Crabill, highlighting risks in using AI for legal research.

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Alleged: OpenAI and ChatGPT developed an AI system deployed by Zachariah Crabill, which harmed Zachariah Crabill , Zachariah Crabill's client and Legal system.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
615
Report Count
4
Incident Date
2023-06-13
Editors
Applied Taxonomies
MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

3.1. False or misleading information

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. Misinformation

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

Human

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Unintentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

+1
Colorado Springs attorney says ChatGPT created fake cases he cited in court documents | KRDO
+2
These lawyers used ChatGPT to save time. They got fired and fined.
Colorado Springs attorney says ChatGPT created fake cases he cited in court documents | KRDO

Colorado Springs attorney says ChatGPT created fake cases he cited in court documents | KRDO

krdo.com

These lawyers used ChatGPT to save time. They got fired and fined.

These lawyers used ChatGPT to save time. They got fired and fined.

washingtonpost.com

A stressed out rookie lawyer says he got fired after he used ChatGPT to do his job

A stressed out rookie lawyer says he got fired after he used ChatGPT to do his job

businessinsider.com

Colorado lawyer suspended for using AI platform to draft legal motion

Colorado lawyer suspended for using AI platform to draft legal motion

cbsnews.com

Colorado Springs attorney says ChatGPT created fake cases he cited in court documents | KRDO
krdo.com · 2023

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Colorado Springs attorney Zachariah Crabill thought he was filing a motion with cited cases that would favor his client’s argument, only to find out many of the cases were made up by Artificial Intelligence …

These lawyers used ChatGPT to save time. They got fired and fined.
washingtonpost.com · 2023

Zachariah Crabill was two years out of law school, burned out and nervous, when his bosses added another case to his workload this May. He toiled for hours writing a motion until he had an idea: Maybe ChatGPT could help?

Within seconds, the…

A stressed out rookie lawyer says he got fired after he used ChatGPT to do his job
businessinsider.com · 2023

Thinking about using OpenAI's ChatGPT on the job? Be careful about false information — or risk getting fired.

This summer, Zachariah Crabill, a 29-year-old lawyer who previously worked at Baker Law Group, was fired after he used ChatGPT at …

Colorado lawyer suspended for using AI platform to draft legal motion
cbsnews.com · 2023

A Colorado lawyer has been suspended for a year for using an AI chatbot to draft a legal document.

A judge ordered Zachariah Crabill to a one year and one day suspension after Crabill allegedly "cited case law that he found through the arti…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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