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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Robert Booth UK technology editor

High court tells UK lawyers to stop misuse of AI after fake case-law citations

The exterior of the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
Dame Victoria Sharp, the president of the King’s bench division of the high court, said AI’s responses to lawyers’ prompts ‘may make confident assertions that are simply untrue’. Photograph: Nicholas T Ansell/PA

The high court has told senior lawyers to take urgent action to prevent the misuse of artificial intelligence after dozens of fake case-law citations were put before the courts that were either completely fictitious or contained made-up passages.

Lawyers are increasingly using AI systems to help them build legal arguments, but two cases this year were blighted by made-up case-law citations that were either definitely or suspected to have been generated by AI.

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