B.C. couple referenced non-existent, AI-generated court rulings in condo dispute, tribunal finds [Video]

A B.C. couple hoped artificial intelligence would help them find legal precedent to win a condo dispute, but it turns out almost all of the court rulings the chatbot generated for them didn’t exist.

Robert and Michelle Geismayr went to the Civil Resolution Tribunal in a bid to get their strata corporation to approve unauthorized alterations in their condo unit, according to a tribunal decision issued late last week.

In strata housing, people own their individual strata lots and, together with other residents, own common property and assets as a strata corporation. All strata corporations are required to have bylaws, which are enforced by a strata council.

The Geismayrs referenced 10 decisions as part of their argument to allow the unit changes and listed Microsoft Copilot as the source of the cases.

Nine of the cases were fake, according to tribunal member Peter Mennie.

“I find it likely that these cases are ‘hallucinations’ where artificial intelligence generates …