CPS prosecutor cited invented case, court documents show; Guardian understands AI search generated reference
Two senior High Court judges called the prosecutor's explanation "unsatisfactory"; an expert in AI and law called the episode a "serious failure"
A senior Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor cited a legal case that does not exist while arguing in a High Court dispute over whether a child should be prosecuted, court documents have revealed. Two senior High Court judges called her explanation for how the nonexistent case came to be relied on "unsatisfactory", and Brian Flanagan, an associate professor of law at Maynooth University who investigates judges' use of AI, called it a "serious failure". The Guardian understands the reference came from an AI response generated during an internet search.