And finally… chat-botched

A ’90s rap star convicted of illegally funnelling foreign money to Barack Obama’s election campaign and acting as a Chinese agent is seeing a retrial on the basis that his defence lawyer allegedly relied on AI to write his closing statement.

Pras, best known as one of the Fugees, was found guilty last year of 10 offences including conspiracy and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government after a high-profile trial which heard evidence from Leonardo DiCaprio.

The rapper is now seeking to have the conviction overturned on the basis that his lawyer botched closing arguments thanks to an AI-powered tool called EyeLevel.AI, which is explicitly marketed to lawyers, NBC News reports.

A press release issued by EyeLevel.AI shortly after the trial hailed “the first use of generative AI in a federal trial”.

However, Pras’ new lawyers claim the closing argument written with assistance from the AI tool was “deficient, unhelpful and a missed opportunity that prejudiced the defence”.

Share icon
Share this article: