AI-Generated Lawyer Avatar Sparks Controversy in New York Courtroom

Man Tries to Use AI-Generated Lawyer in Courtroom, Judge Unhappy

A judge was left unimpressed after a plaintiff attempted to use an AI-generated lawyer in the form of an avatar in a New York courtroom. 74-year-old Jerome Dewald got permission from the court to play a video but didn't specify it was AI-generated. As soon as the video started playing, Associate Justice Sallie Manzanet-Daniels intervened. "Now may it please the court, I come here today a humble pro se before a panel of five distinguished justices," says a well-heeled AI avatar named James. "Is this ... hold on? Is that counsel for the case?" Manzanet-Daniels asks. "That? I generated that," says Dewald who is sitting opposite the bench. "That is not a real person." "It would have been nice to know that when you made your application," Manzanet-Daniels says to Dewald. "You did not tell me that, sir." Manzanet-Daniels later chastised Dewald for the stunt, saying "You are not going to use this courtroom as a launch for your business." Dewald, who operates a startup called Pro Se Pro [a pro se is someone who represents themselves], says he wasn't trying to promote a business but genuinely wanted the avatar -- which came from a company called Tavus -- as an aid to help him through proceedings. He wanted the avatar to look like himself but "had some technical difficulties getting it completed," he tells NewsNation. Dewald instead used James which, he jokes, is "much more handsome than I am." Dewald has since written a letter of apology to the court. He tells The Register that courts view AI skeptically because of known issues with the technology; such as its tendency to "hallucinate" and give out false information.

Judge Goes Ballistic When Man Shows AI-Generated Video in Court

A 74-year-old entrepreneur played an entirely AI-generated video of a male avatar to address the judge during a court appearance on his behalf. And as The Register reports, the judge was extremely unimpressed by the stunt, and proceeded to chew him out. Plaintiff Jerome Dewald appeared before the New York State's Supreme Court on March 26 as part of an employment dispute with an insurance company called MassMutual Metro. "Now may it please the court, I come here today a humble pro se before a panel of five distinguished justices," said a well-groomed, sweater-wearing AI avatar -- who looks roughly three decades younger than Dewald -- in the video. But the video was interrupted almost immediately. "Is this ... hold on? Is that counsel for the case?" a confused associate justice Sallie Manzanet-Daniels asked. "That? I generated that," a proud and in-the-flesh Dewald responded from inside the courtroom. "That is not a real person," he clarified sheepishly. "It would have been nice to know that when you made your application," Manzanet-Daniels responded angrily. "You did not tell me that, sir." The use of AI in the courtroom has already proven highly controversial, with several lawyers being raked over the coals for using ChatGPT and not realizing it had come up with entirely fictional case law. In the case of Dewald, the judge tore him out for claiming that a medical condition -- a bout with throat cancer around 25 years ago -- had left him incapable of addressing the court directly since he already had "verbal conversations with our staff for over 30 minutes." "I don't appreciate being misled," she added. "So either you are suffering from an ailment that prevents you from being able to articulate or you don't. You are not going to use this courtroom as a launch for your business, sir." Dewald has a startup, called Pro Se Pro, which is designed to help litigants represent themselves by creating realistic video avatars. As Dewald later told the Register in an interview, the court had given him permission for a presentation. But they "were unprepared to see an artificially generated image," he said. "Extended speaking is problematic for me," he explained. Dewald was originally going to use a separate service called Tavus to create an AI avatar of his face, but ran out of time. (It's unclear whether Tavus and Pro Se Pro are in any way related). Instead, he "just used one of their stock replicas, that big, beautiful hunk of a guy that they call Jim." Dewald also acknowledged that the use of AI may end up hurting your case "because there's such a negative view of hallucinations and AI," he told the Register.