In Nevada County, California, prosecutors used generative artificial intelligence (AI) to help write and review criminal court filings last fall. The AI tool invented case citations that do not exist in real law, and those fabrications turned up in four separate felony cases, including one tied to a jailed man's bid for release. A California appeals court has now put a judge in charge of deciding whether District Attorney Jesse Wilson should face sanctions.

A former prosecutor in the office, Madison Maxwell, says she used AI to edit filings without realizing the software could invent citations out of thin air. She also says that once the errors surfaced, her supervisor kept her from quickly notifying the judge, the other side's attorneys, and the people whose cases were affected. Some defendants may not have learned for some time that arguments made against them relied on made-up law.

This is not a small technical slip. Kate Chatfield, executive director of the California Public Defender's Association, told CalMatters that when a prosecutor cites a case that does not exist, "that has serious implications for that defendant and their family." When a defense lawyer makes this mistake, it is serious enough. When a prosecutor does it, someone can lose their freedom over it.

Nevada County's District Attorney's Office let staff use AI on criminal filings without ever writing a policy or training anyone on the risks. That has to change. District Attorney Jesse Wilson should ban generative AI from criminal court filings in his office until real safeguards, human review, and mandatory fact-checking are in place.

People's freedom should not depend on whether a chatbot invented the law a prosecutor relied on. Sign the petition to demand Nevada County ban AI in criminal filings before another case is built on a fake citation.