Objection, Your Honor: That Lawyer Doesn’t Exist
Objection, Your Honor: That Lawyer Doesn’t Exist
An AI just tried to argue a legal case in New York, and it wasn’t the judge who objected first, it was reality.
In a surreal courtroom twist, a New York plaintiff used an AI-generated avatar to argue his case, without disclosing it. The smiling, well-spoken virtual “lawyer” opened with the classic line, “May it please the court,” before the real court swiftly shut it down.
The judges weren’t amused. The plaintiff, Jerome Dewald, later admitted the avatar was created using San Francisco-based software to avoid public speaking anxiety. While courts in Arizona now use avatars to summarize rulings, this incident sparked renewed debate over AI’s role in legal proceedings.
- AI hallucinations have previously led to fictitious case citations
- Some courts now use avatars for legal summaries
- Pro se litigants lack clear AI usage guidelines
What happens when courtroom tradition collides with synthetic confidence? As AI tools become courtroom actors, how should we redesign rules of engagement, responsibility, and identity in institutions built on human credibility?
Read the full article on AP News.
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💡 We're entering a world where intelligence is synthetic, reality is augmented, and the rules are being rewritten in front of our eyes.
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Dr. Mark van Rijmenam
Dr. Mark van Rijmenam is The Digital Speaker, a world-leading futurist and global AI keynote speaker who helps leaders decide what AI, and the technologies that follow it, mean for their business. He speaks to leadership teams at their retreats and to conference audiences worldwide, and his WAVE framework gives them a way of deciding that they keep using long after he has left the room. His Intelligence Age Scorecard measures how ready an organization is across the four WAVE pillars.
He holds a PhD from the University of Technology Sydney, is a Certified Speaking Professional and Global Speaking Fellow, and ranks among the world’s top futurists on the Global Gurus list (#1 in 2025, #3 in 2026). Salesforce named him one of its 16 leading AI voices. He has written six books, most recently Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change, writes the Synthetic Minds newsletter on Substack, and founded Futurwise. Talk to his digital twin on WhatsApp: +1 (830) 463-6967.
