A Quick Reminder About Using AI

We’ve seen a lot of our members posting comments that are clearly generated by AI so we felt it important to post this reminder. AI can be a great tool. A lot of us use it to help organize our thoughts, improve our writing, or explain complicated ideas. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using AI as a tool to help you write a comment.

But before posting, please make sure what you’re posting is actually true and not hallucinated garbage. The same goes with statistics. If you are going to share statistics, make sure you cite to the source you are getting it from or it will be removed.

This week, the Eleventh Circuit summed it up perfectly in Akerlund et al. v. Atlas Air, Inc. after an attorney filed a brief full of made-up cases generated by AI, “Whatever the merits of artificial intelligence, it is no substitute for actual intelligence.” That lawyer didn’t just frustrate the court, screwed up his client’s appeal and ended up being referred to the Bar’s disciplinary committee.

Now, we’re obviously not a court, and the FAC forum isn’t a place for legal advice. But people do come here looking for information, and they trust what they read. That means we all have a responsibility to keep the information shared here accurate.

We love seeing members jump in, answer questions, and share what they’ve learned. That’s what makes this community so valuable. If you’re using AI to help write a comment, just do everyone a favor and spend a few extra minutes checking any cases, statutes, quotes, or “facts” before you post them. AI has a bad habit of sounding incredibly confident even when it’s completely wrong.

Lately, our moderators have been spending way too much time checking citations, verifying information, and deleting comments with AI-generated errors or completely made-up legal authorities. We’d much rather spend that time helping members and keeping the conversation moving. So by all means, use AI. Just don’t let AI do your thinking for you.

Thanks for helping keep FAC a place where people can count on the information being shared.