Extract from Cheryl Miller’s article “‘Is This in Fact Real or Not?’ 9th Circuit Conference Delves Into AI Issues in Federal Courts”
As generative artificial intelligence transitions quickly from an intellectual curiosity to a courtroom reality, judges should keep asking questions but not deny the technology’s potential benefits out of hand, experts told the annual Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference gathering in Sacramento on Monday.
Speaking to a partially filled ballroom of judges and lawyers, two academics and a Microsoft Corp. executive ran through a litany of experienced and feared misuses of AI, including hallucinated case cites, manipulated or fake evidence and technology relying on bad data spewing false information.
Panel moderator Miriam Kim, a Munger, Tolles & Olson partner, started a session with a video showing her welcoming conferencing attendees; she later explained that the message, including the images and script, was created entirely by generative AI, a fact some discerning watchers may have detected when her voice mispronounced “Tolles” and the last name of panelist Ruth Okediji, a Harvard Law School professor.
“The lists of risks on certain days feels longer than the lists of benefits,” said Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft.
