Judge Accused of Using AI to Issue Garbled Ruling (mississippitoday.org)
from Pro@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world on 01 Aug 2025 09:55
https://programming.dev/post/34911103

#technology

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Australis13@fedia.io on 01 Aug 2025 10:31 next collapse

LLMs are being shoved into so many bits of software (office suites, programming tools, etc.) it doesn't surprise me that something like this has happened.

unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de on 01 Aug 2025 10:45 collapse

Law people have a duty to be up to date on this stuff tho. If you dont know how to avoid LLMs from seeing or interacting with your stuff then you shouldnt be allowed to practice law.

tabular@lemmy.world on 01 Aug 2025 11:18 collapse

To really be sure would require knowing what software is actually doing - not just taking the claims made by the programmers (or more likely, the mere owners) of the proprietary software.

That sounds doubly difficult job.

unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de on 01 Aug 2025 11:20 next collapse

Pretty sure there is such a thing as legally certified software where the liability would then lie with the software vendor.

jbloggs777@discuss.tchncs.de on 01 Aug 2025 11:58 next collapse

Judges usually don’t know this stuff, but they primarily work with systems and software supplied by the state…whose experts should know what they are doing.

My bet is that this guy decided to work on personal equipment, probably in violation of the rules. Being a judge, he’s unlikely to be sanctioned for it, and will certainly learn from the experience. If anything, there may be some internal discussions which we’ll never hear about.

Law is an area where AI can add value, though… searching through past rulings and legal opinions is tedious, and anything that can assist to find needles in haystacks would be welcome. It shouldn’t be used to write legal judgements or arguments though…

14th_cylon@lemmy.zip on 01 Aug 2025 13:27 collapse

To really be sure would require knowing what software is actually doing

i am pretty sure you do know whether you wrote a text, or it just magically spawned in front of your eyes out of thin air - you don’t need degree in computer science for that.

tabular@lemmy.world on 01 Aug 16:34 next collapse

Creating text is not the only issue, it may be trained from your confidential files.

tabular@lemmy.world on 01 Aug 22:34 collapse

Also no, you don’t know what it’s doing so you could be blindsighted by the latest AI update making unexpected changes. Not only from good-intentioned features but also bugs, or malicious anti-features after the CEO throws their toys out of the Twitter pram.

14th_cylon@lemmy.zip on 02 Aug 00:34 collapse

no malicious update can force you to generate a text and file it in court as your own work.

tabular@lemmy.world on 02 Aug 07:11 collapse

Consider that a program can edit the file while running at any point, not merely during user input. Like a virus with access to user’s files it could even edit a document that’s not even being displayed to the user on the screen.

14th_cylon@lemmy.zip on 02 Aug 10:03 collapse

well that would be fucked up for sure. are you suggesting any existing program works like that, or are just speculating what if?

tabular@lemmy.world on 02 Aug 11:25 collapse

This may be out of date but in this video by Lawful Masses lawyers are concerned that software AI tools which somehow (I don’t recall) help them understand a case. This issue is the AI should not use information sourced from another client’s confidential case/documents to inform them about another case but they don’t know how it works. Responses from Microsoft were not forthcoming.

I would argue they can’t know unless they have access to the source code to verify what any (local) AI can do (not personally do it, but a trusted 3rd party audit which isn’t behind closed doors).

perishthethought@piefed.social on 01 Aug 2025 10:41 next collapse

“If an attorney does this, a judge can demand explanations, but it’s not true in the other direction,” Frohock said. “We will probably never know what happened, unless an appellate court demands it.”

That sucks. There should be some sort of consequence for doing this.

Quill7513@slrpnk.net on 01 Aug 2025 13:11 collapse

the only place at this point that can come from is from the governed: the populace

sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 01 Aug 2025 12:42 next collapse

Vibe based legal system, sure, why not?

SheeEttin@lemmy.zip on 01 Aug 17:01 collapse

That’s just called common law

TeddE@lemmy.world on 01 Aug 18:50 collapse

This made me laugh. Not wrong though!

PattyMcB@lemmy.world on 01 Aug 2025 13:44 next collapse

I know a law firm who creates garbage like this without even using AI

SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works on 01 Aug 15:24 next collapse

Should have judged the situation better

cheese_greater@lemmy.world on 01 Aug 17:50 next collapse

Another awesome Regan appendage

shalafi@lemmy.world on 01 Aug 21:21 collapse

from a federal judge in Mississippi

I SO want to love that state, but fuck me, this comes at zero surprise.