this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2025
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But the explanation and Ramirez’s promise to educate himself on the use of AI wasn’t enough, and the judge chided him for not doing his research before filing. “It is abundantly clear that Mr. Ramirez did not make the requisite reasonable inquiry into the law. Had he expended even minimal effort to do so, he would have discovered that the AI-generated cases do not exist. That the AI-generated excerpts appeared valid to Mr. Ramirez does not relieve him of his duty to conduct a reasonable inquiry,” Judge Dinsmore continued, before recommending that Ramirez be sanctioned for $15,000.

Falling victim to this a year or more after the first guy made headlines for the same is just stupidity.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (2 children)

I hate people can even try to blame AI.

If I typo a couple extra zeroes because my laptop sucks, that doesn't mean I didn't fuck up. I fucked up because of a tool I was using, but I was still the human using that tool.

This is no different.

If a lawyer submits something to court that is fraudulent I don't give a shit if he wrote it on a notepad or told the AI on his phone browser to do it.

He submitted it.

Start yanking law licenses and these lawyers will start re-evaluating if AI means they can fire all their human assistants and take on even more cases.

Stop acting like this shit is autonomous tools that strip responsibility from decisions, that's literally how Elmo is about to literally dismantle our federal government.

And they're 100% gonna blame the AI too.

I'm honestly surprised they haven't claimed DOGE is run by AI yet

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago

Exactly. If you want to use AI for something, cool, but you own the results. You can try suing the AI company for bad output, but you can't use the AI as an excuse to get out of negative consequences for something you are expected to do.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

But I was hysterically assured that AI was going to take all our jobs?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (5 children)

The judge wrote that he “does not aim to suggest that AI is inherently bad or that its use by lawyers should be forbidden,” and noted that he’s a vocal advocate for the use of technology in the legal profession. “Nevertheless, much like a chain saw or other useful [but] potentially dangerous tools, one must understand the tools they are using and use those tools with caution,” he wrote. “It should go without saying that any use of artificial intelligence must be consistent with counsel's ethical and professional obligations. In other words, the use of artificial intelligence must be accompanied by the application of actual intelligence in its execution.” 

I won't even go that far. I can very much believe that you can build an AI capable of doing perfectly-reasonable legal arguments. Might be using technology that looks a lot different from what we have today, but whatever.

The problem is that the lawyer just started using a new technology to produce material that he didn't even validate, without determining whether-or-not it actually worked for what he wanted to do in its current state, and where there was clearly available material showing that it was not in that state.

It's as if a shipbuilder started using random new substance in its ship hull without actually conducting serious tests on it or even looking at consensus in the shipbuilding industry as to whether the material could fill that role. Meanwhile, the substance is slowly dissolving in water. Just slapped it in the hull and sold it to the customer.

EDIT: Hmm. Actually, I thought that the judge was saying that the lawyer needed to use AI-generated stuff in a human-guided role, but upon consideration, I may in fact be violently agreeing with the judge. "Actual intelligence" may simply refer to what I'm saying that the lawyer should have done.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 12 hours ago

But this is exactly what AI is being marketed toward. All of Apple's AI ads showcase dumb people who appear smart because the AI bails out their ineptitude.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 hours ago

I've been saying this for ages. Even as someone who's more-or-less against the current implementation of AI, I think people who truly believe in AI should be fighting the hardest against bad uses of it. It gives AI a worse black eye every time something like this happens.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

violently agreeing

Typo? Do you mean vehemently or are you intending to cause harm over this opinion 😂

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

They're synonyms in this case, so either works here

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 hours ago

It’s an expression meaning you are arguing/fighting over something when both sides actually hold the same position and didn’t realize at first.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 hours ago

Why would one even get the idea to use AI for something like this?

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe."

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

All you do is a quick search on the case to see if it's real or not.

They bill enough each hour to get some interns to do this all day.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure that just doing "quick searches" is exactly how he ended up with AI answers to begin with.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago

I don't think PACER or the state equivalents use AI summary tools yet.

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