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Sullivan & Cromwell Admits AI 'Hallucinations' in Court Filing
22 Apr
Summary
- Elite law firm Sullivan & Cromwell apologized for filing fake case citations created by AI.
- The AI errors, described as 'hallucinations,' appeared in a recent filing in Manhattan.
- The firm's policies on AI use were not followed, leading to the embarrassing blunder.

Sullivan & Cromwell, a prestigious law firm, has issued an apology to a federal judge in Manhattan for submitting a court document containing errors attributed to artificial intelligence. These inaccuracies, described as 'hallucinations,' involved the creation of fake case citations.
The firm acknowledged that its established policies for the use of AI tools were not adhered to in preparing the filing. This incident highlights the growing challenges the legal profession faces with the increasing reliance on AI for research, despite its propensity for generating factual inaccuracies.
The errors were discovered in a case involving the Prince Group, a Cambodian conglomerate, where Sullivan & Cromwell represents entities overseeing liquidated assets. The firm has stated that the AI-generated hallucinations were confined to this single filing after a review of other documents.