Lawyer Using ChatGPT Faces Penalty for Fabricated Citations

A New York lawyer is facing potential sanctions after using an AI program to fabricate entire case citations and judicial opinions in a brief. Steven A. Schwartz used the artificial intelligence program ChatGPT as part of his research for a lawsuit. He claimed that he had no idea the program was capable of generating fake legal citations in such an authentic manner. Schwartz apologized this week and called the incident a deeply regrettable mistake. He also mentioned he had learned about ChatGPT from his college-aged children and from articles he had read but had never used it professionally until now. The repercussions of this incident have garnered news coverage and public ridicule for him and his law firm, Levidow, Levidow & Oberman. The hearing will decide whether or not to sanction Schwartz for his conduct.