tech
December 8, 2025
Large language mistake, legal edition.
Cool update to last week’s story on why language doesn’t equal intelligence: a Michigan judge cited it to justify imposing sanctions over a ChatGPT-assisted filing that mentioned real cases but misstated their facts. Congrats to author Benjamin Riley, and thanks to folks who pointed it out on X and Bluesky!
TL;DR
- A Michigan judge used a Verge article to justify sanctions for a ChatGPT-assisted legal filing.
- The filing contained misstated facts, despite mentioning real cases.
- The article argues that LLMs emulate language but do not think or reason.
- LLMs construct plausible sentences without guaranteeing factual truth.
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the original article