A Stanford University “a disinformation expert” was accused of using artificial intelligence (AI) to write testimony later used by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in a politically charged case.
Jeff Hancock, a communications professor and founder of the school’s vaunted Social Media Lab, provided an expert statement in a case involving a satirical conservative YouTuber named Christopher Kohls. The lawsuit focuses on Minnesota’s recent ban on political deepfakes, which the plaintiffs say is an attack on free speech.
Hancock’s testimony was submitted to the court by Ellison, who argues in favor of the law. Hancock is “well known for his research on how people use deception with technology, from sending text messages and emails to detecting fake reviews online,” according to the website of Stanford.
But the plaintiff’s lawyers asked the Minnesota federal judge hearing the case to throw out the testimony, accusing Hancock of citing a false study.
WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?
A Stanford professor is accused of using an AI language model to write an expert statement. (Getty Images)
“(Professor Jeff Hancock’s) statement cites a study that does not exist,” the lawyers argued in a recent 36-page memo. “No article with this title exists.”
The “study” was titled “The Influence of Deepfake Videos on Political Attitudes and Behavior” and was reportedly published in the Journal of Information Technology and Politics. THE Filing of November 16 notes that the journal is authentic, but has never published a study by that name.
“The publication exists, but the cited pages belong to unrelated articles,” the lawyers argued. “It is likely that the study was a ‘hallucination’ generated by a Large AI language model like ChatGPT.”
“Plaintiffs are unclear how this hallucination resulted in Hancock’s statement, but it calls the entire document into question, particularly when much of the commentary contains no analytical methodology or logic.”
The document also indicts Ellison, arguing that “the conclusions on which Ellison relies most are not based on any methodology and consist entirely of expert opinions.”
“Hancock could have cited an actual study similar to the proposition in paragraph 21,” the memo states. “But the existence of a fictitious quote that Hancock (or his aides) didn’t even bother to click calls into question the quality and veracity of the entire statement.”
BIDEN’S EXECUTIVE ORDER FOR “AWAKENED” ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CALLED “SOCIAL CANCER”
Microsoft chat apps Bing Chat and ChatGPT AI are seen on a mobile device in this photo illustration in Warsaw, Poland, July 21, 2023. (Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The memorandum also doubles down on the claim that the quote is false, highlighting the multiple searches attorneys conducted to try to locate the study.
“The title of the alleged article, and even an excerpt of it, does not appear anywhere on the Internet as indexed by Google and Bing, the most commonly used search engines,” the document states. “A search on Google Scholar, a specialized search engine for academic articles and patent publications, reveals no articles matching the description of the citation written by “Hwang” (the alleged author) which includes the term “deepfake “.
“Perhaps this was simply a copy-and-paste error? This is not the case,” the filing later states flatly. “The article does not exist.”
The lawyers concluded that if the statement was partially fabricated, it is completely unreliable and should be thrown out by the court.
“Professor Hancock’s statement should be excluded in its entirety because at least part of it is based on fabricated material likely generated by an AI model, which calls his conclusive claims into question,” the paper concludes. “The court may investigate the source of the manufacturing and further action may be warranted.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison arrives on stage during day three of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 21, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. (Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Fox News Digital has reached out to Ellison, Hancock and Stanford University for comment.
