Two years ago, the owners of a greyish, two-story house near John F. Kennedy International Airport decided to sue their tenant. The landlords, a married couple, claimed the 80-year-old woman living there owed them more than $40,000 in unpaid rent, and hired an attorney to get it back.
Instead, their lawyer used fake, likely AI-generated court cases to support his argument that the lawsuit should move forward, according to Queens Housing Court Judge Kimon Thermos's decision to sanction the lawyer.
Attorney Innocent Chinweze filed an argument to the court in April that included seven "nonexistent cases," Thermos wrote. When the judge confronted Chinweze months later in a June hearing, Chinweze claimed he was "hacked," and sent the judge 88 pages of additional research that was also likely generated by AI, according to court records.
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