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Title: AI Avatar Tries To Argue Case Before a New York Court

Link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/04/04/20232...

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: It took only
seconds for the judges on a New York appeals court to realize that the man
addressing them from a video screen -- a person about to present an argument
in a lawsuit -- not only had no law degree, but didn't exist at all. The
latest bizarre chapter in the awkward arrival of artificial intelligence in
the legal world unfolded March 26 under the stained-glass dome of New York
State Supreme Court Appellate Division's First Judicial Department, where a
panel of judges was set to hear from Jerome Dewald, a plaintiff in an
employment dispute. "The appellant has submitted a video for his argument,"
said Justice Sallie Manzanet-Daniels. "Ok. We will hear that video now." On
the video screen appeared a smiling, youthful-looking man with a sculpted
hairdo, button-down shirt and sweater. "May it please the court," the man
began. "I come here today a humble pro se before a panel of five
distinguished justices." "Ok, hold on," Manzanet-Daniels said. "Is that
counsel for the case?" "I generated that. That's not a real person," Dewald
answered. It was, in fact, an avatar generated by artificial intelligence.
The judge was not pleased. "It would have been nice to know that when you
made your application. You did not tell me that sir," Manzanet-Daniels said
before yelling across the room for the video to be shut off. "I don't
appreciate being misled," she said before letting Dewald continue with his
argument. Dewald later penned an apology to the court, saying he hadn't
intended any harm. He didn't have a lawyer representing him in the lawsuit,
so he had to present his legal arguments himself. And he felt the avatar
would be able to deliver the presentation without his own usual mumbling,
stumbling and tripping over words. In an interview with The Associated Press,
Dewald said he applied to the court for permission to play a prerecorded
video, then used a product created by a San Francisco tech company to create
the avatar. Originally, he tried to generate a digital replica that looked
like him, but he was unable to accomplish that before the hearing. "The court
was really upset about it," Dewald conceded. "They chewed me up pretty good."
[...] As for Dewald's case, it was still pending before the appeals court as
of Thursday.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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