<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Taking a cue from Sam Dragga, who is so kind about sending links to relevant and timely case studies, I wanted to share some links that might be useful for those of you who (like me) are looking for real-world cases about the affordances and drawbacks of using ChatGPT as a writing assistant. These links reference a case that’s been in the news a lot lately — the one of the lawyer who, in an opposition to a motion to dismiss, cited a bunch of nonexistent cases that ChatGPT had provided to him. <br><br>This link (<a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/63107798/mata-v-avianca-inc/">https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/63107798/mata-v-avianca-inc/</a>) has a boatload of documents, but most relevant are 3/1/23 (the plaintiff counsel’s opposition with bogus citations), 3/15/23 (the defense counsel’s shorter response noting that they can’t find many of the cases cited in the opposition), 4/25/23 (the plaintiff counsel’s response to a request from the judge to provide full briefs of the mysterious cases in question), and 6/6/23 (lawyer Schwartz’s acknowledgment that he was badly misled by ChatGPT). <br><br>This link (<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23844470-mata-v-avianca-20230608-show-cause-transcript">https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23844470-mata-v-avianca-20230608-show-cause-transcript</a>) contains the full transcript of a recent hearing on 6/8 in which the court pressed Schwartz and several other attorneys in his law office about their use of ChatGPT. <br><br>While there are a lot of potentially fruitful takeaways here, so far, I've found two that may be particularly relevant for students:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">1. Schwartz repeatedly indicates in the hearing transcript that he assumed ChatGPT had access to information that he didn’t and that even though neither he nor members of the opposing counsel could actually find the cases ChatGPT was referencing, those cases must exist somewhere if ChatGPT was referencing them. Even when the judge presents the plaintiff’s legal team with evidence that the case summaries ChatGPT provided for the false cases are full of contradictions (the judge calls them “legal gibberish”), the legal team says that they assumed the cases were legitimate. This assumption — that AI knows more than we do, has access to information we humans cannot access ourselves, and can be trusted even when the information it provides is contradictory and nonsensical — is obviously dangerous. This seems like a great opening for students to discuss agency and responsibility in ethical communication.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"> <br>2. In the 6/6 documents (see exhibit A in particular - a truly fascinating transcript of Schwartz's ChatGPT queries) and in the hearing transcript, Schwartz admits that he did not approach ChatGPT in a spirit of genuine inquiry but rather asked the AI to argue in favor of a particular position and then to provide cases that supported that position. As the judge notes in the hearing transcript on page 26, lines 23-24, “The computer complied. It provided you with a case. It wrote a case. It followed your command.” I think this could produce fruitful discussion with students about the difference between genuine inquiry and “inquiry” that sets out with an argumentative end in mind and seeks corresponding evidence. ChatGPT seems particularly sensitive to the latter and, as this case suggests, will sometimes “hallucinate” in order to satisfy user expectations.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">I realize this is a lot of legal nerding out (especially during summer vacation), but I find all of this fascinating and thought some of you might, too!<br></div><br><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">Emily
B. DeJeu, PhD </span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif">| she/her</span><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"><br></span></b></p>
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Teaching Professor, Business Management Communication<br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><b><span style="color:rgb(187,0,0)">z </span></b><span><a href="https://cmu.zoom.us/j/2060195608" target="_blank">https://cmu.zoom.us/j/2060195608</a><br></span></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><b><span style="color:rgb(187,0,0)">o</span></b><span> TPR 4133 | </span>412-268-5120<span></span></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><b><span style="color:rgb(187,0,0)">cv</span></b> <a href="http://emilybdejeu.com" target="_blank">emilybdejeu.com</a></span></font> <span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:#bb0000"><br></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:#bb0000"><img src="https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/mail-sig/AIorK4wFQLrmmhgsaCrO-8vyIoxi2n8SZ32SxcgkSVyfAjJDjw9S-AYJ55Jp1C_wQMDIUBYNPsQU8ug"><br></span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:#bb0000">Carnegie Mellon University</span></b></p>
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