Judge sends ChatGPT-using lawyer to AI school with $5,500 fine after he's caught creating imaginary caselaw: 'Any lawyer unaware that using generative AI platforms to do legal research is playing with fire is living in a cloud'

Phoenix Wright holds his head in his hands in the courtroom, clearly in distress.

As someone whose special interest is not going to prison, I'd be pretty keen on my lawyer not using AI to advise them in the courtroom. So I suppose I can be glad that I was not the debtor who enlisted the Semrad Law Firm in a bankruptcy case last year (via Damien Charlotin). The firm and its attorney in the case—Thomas Nield—have been rapped over the knuckles by judge Michael Slade for using ChatGPT to dredge up relevant legal history to help them represent the debtor.

Problem was, the relevant cases ChatGPT spat out, and which were submitted to the court by Nield, didn't exist.