More lawyers misusing AI - 9th Circuit weighs in:
The order begins with a "warning to the members of this Court's bar: be aware of the risks of overreliance on generative AI, read everything cited in a court filing—whether drafted by generative AI or not—and disclose quickly and transparently generative AI hallucinations that are inadvertently included in court filings."
Lawyers here submitted briefs "containing hallucinated fabrications and inaccuracies."
They tried to blame "copy-paste errors" or typos.
At oral argument, they initially insisted that AI "was not used." Later, they admitted it was "possible" that AI might have been used.
Court: "The misconduct in this case did not end with the initial filing of the briefs. At every subsequent step—including a Motion to Correct, oral argument, the Response to the panel’s Order to Show Cause, and more recent filings in other cases—the attorneys knowingly or recklessly made false statements to this Court."
"While not inherently unethical or irresponsible, using generative AI without rigorously checking its output does present a higher risk of violating certain ethical and procedural rules.
This is due to the nature of mistakes that generative AI is prone to make, at least in its current stage of advancement."
"It is no excuse that Sethi entrusted substantive cite checking to subordinates, and it is no excuse that Sethi purportedly did not know his subordinates had used generative AI."
Sanctions:
-Each lawyer must pay $2,500
-Both suspended from practicing before 9th Cir. for 6 months
-Must send copy of order to all clients, opposing counsel, every presiding judge in their cases, every attorney in their firm.
-Both attorneys and all lawyers at the firm must include a statement disclosing AI use in all future filings.
-Order served on Cal Bar for further proceedings.