AI incident ·
3M-Retained Expert Reportedly Submitted Largely ChatGPT-Generated Analysis Seeking to Exonerate 3M as Expert Evidence in Explosion Lawsuit
In brief
An AI system built by Openai, Large Language Model Developers and 1 other and deployed by Josh Autenrieth, Expert Witnesses and 1 other allegedly harmed Plaintiffs In Watson Grinding Explosion Litigation, Legal System and 3 others.
- Risk domain
- Not classified
- Occurred
- Coverage
- 2 reports
What happened
3M-retained expert Josh Autenrieth reportedly submitted an expert report substantially generated with ChatGPT after prompting it to show 3M was "0% at fault" for a 2020 Houston industrial explosion that killed three people and destroyed roughly 200 homes. Plaintiffs were thereby presented with purported expert evidence substantially drafted toward a requested conclusion by an AI system, prompting extensive discovery and trial scrutiny.
Laws that address this harm
No recorded instrument yet addresses this use case where it happened. See the open queue.
Matched from the record's risk domain and country to the instruments recorded here. A reviewer can correct the match in the repository (data/external/incident_overrides.yaml).
News reports (2)
Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.
Who was involved
- Alleged deployer
- Josh Autenrieth, Expert Witnesses, Engineers
- Alleged developer
- Openai, Large Language Model Developers, Chatbot Developers
- Alleged harmed party
- Plaintiffs In Watson Grinding Explosion Litigation, Legal System, Judicial Integrity, Epistemic Integrity, Courts
Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)
- Risk domain
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- Risk subdomain
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- Causal entity
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- Intent
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- Timing
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- Harm level
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Source record: incident #1645 on the AI Incident Database · all 2 reports