Warning About AI Hallucination During D.C. Federal District Court Bar Admission Ceremony

I just joined (this morning) the bar for the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, which is to say the federal trial court in D.C. One feature—peculiar in my experience of federal court bars—is that all new members of this particular bar have to appear in person to be sworn in in a collective ceremony, conducted once per month. Fortunately, I had been invited to do a couple of talks in D.C. Saturday and today, so I didn't need to fly in just for the occasion.

Here's what struck me: There were some brief remarks from District Judge Dabney Friedrich, and besides some general points about civility, the need to maintain a reputation for professionalism, the call to do pro bono service, and the like, the judge also included a specific warning about the tendency of AI tools to hallucinate. Looks like the court is taking the matter quite seriously.

Comments

[darkknight9]

Congratulations! Does this mean that we might see you arguing in front of the Supreme Court soon? 🙂

[Eugene Volokh]

Thanks, but this is just the federal district court in D.C.; I wanted to join because there are various right-of-access-to-court-records motions I wanted to file at the trial level. D.D.C. cases are no more connected to Supreme Court litigation, generally speaking, than cases in any other district.