A misinformation expert accused of using misinformation in his defense of an anti-misinformation law has claimed that AI is to blame for the mistake.
Jeff Hancock, a communications professor at Stanford University, said that the fake citations included in his written affidavit in support of the Minnesota law had been accidentally created while using a new model of ChatGPT, as reported by SFGate.
The professor said that he had instructed ChatGPT to include "[cite]" in the paragraphs he asked the AI tool to help with so that he would come back to refill them with proper sources. However, ChatGPT reportedly filled those boxes in with fake sources, according to court filing obtained by SFGate.
The Minnesota Attorney General's Office, who employed Hancock, stated that the professor "did not intend to mislead the Court or counsel by including the AI-hallucinated citations in his declaration," according to filings obtained by the Minnesota Reformer.
Hancock's affidavit was written in support of an anti-misinformation law passed in Minnesota in 2023, which prohibits election influence through the use of deepfakes. The law is currently being challenged for alleged infringement of freedom of speech, as reported by the university's student newspaper, the Stanford Daily.
An amended version of the statement was submitted on Wednesday to the court.
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