A defendant in a New York appeals court has been slammed by a judge for using an artificial intelligence avatar to represent himself in a recent case.
A New York appeals court faced an unusual situation in late March when Jerome Dewald, representing himself in an employment dispute, submitted an AI-generated avatar to present his legal arguments via video, a livestream of the hearing shows.
It’s the latest example of artificial intelligence tools trickling their way into courtrooms.
Within seconds of the video starting, Justice Sallie Manzanet-Daniels called for it to stop, asking whether the avatar was counsel for the case.
“I generated that,” 74-year-old Dewald responded, adding, “That is not a real person.”
The judge appeared displeased, retorting, “It would have been nice to know that when you made your application,” stating that the defendant had previously appeared before the court and been able