(NewsNation) — The lawyers for a convicted felon said a prosecutor’s office in California used artificial intelligence when filing a brief in his criminal case, according to multiple reports.
Kyle Kjoller, 57, was ordered held without bail after he was charged with multiple counts of illegal gun possession. Kjoller, who was arrested in April, argued the charges were not serious enough under California law to warrant keeping him in jail for months while he awaited his trial.
Nevada County District Attorney Jesse Wilson disagreed with Kjoller’s plea and followed up by having his office file a brief. However, the document was filled with errors from generative artificial intelligence, including misinterpretations of the law and quotations that do not actually appear in the cited texts.
“Prosecutors’ reliance on inaccurate legal authority can violate ethical rules, and represents an existential threat to the due process rights of criminal defendants and the legitimacy of the courts,” Kjoller’s lawyers said.
Kjoller’s case was one of four separate cases that his lawyers found had been filled with mistakes from AI that linked back to the same prosecutor’s office. Among them was Kalen Turner, who was accused of five felony and two misdemeanor drug counts.
“A prosecutor recently used artificial intelligence in preparing a filing, which resulted in an inaccurate citation,” Wilson stated. “Once the error was discovered, the filing was immediately withdrawn.”
“While artificial intelligence can be a useful research tool, it remains an evolving technology with limitations — including the potential to generate ‘hallucinated’ citations. We are actively learning the fluid dynamics of AI-assisted legal work and its possible pitfalls.”
The potential danger of AI’s growth has caused problems in other fields beyond the law. AI analysis of medical necessity has caused the denial of some types of care in the health care industry. Also, a 16-year-old boy committed suicide after discussing suicidal thoughts with an AI chatbot, prompting a new California law.