Attorneys Claiming That AI Hallucinations Were Entirely Shocking Since They Didn’t Know That AI Can Hallucinate Are Now In Hot Water

InnovationAIAttorneys Claiming That AI Hallucinations Were Entirely Shocking Since They Didn’t Know That AI Can Hallucinate Are Now In Hot WaterByLance Eliot,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Dr. Lance B. Eliot is a world-renowned AI scientist and consultant.Follow AuthorJun 14, 2026, 03:15am EDTAttorneys caught using AI hallucinations are no longer getting a free pass by claiming ignorance about AI.gettyIn today’s column, I examine the rather hard-to-believe claim by attorneys who get caught using AI hallucinations but then stridently insist that they are shocked to learn that AI can hallucinate. This seems to stretch any reasonable bounds of credibility. The legal field is replete with nonstop stories and blaring headlines about transgressions associated with using AI-hallucinated citations and quotations in legal briefings.Any attorney who tries nowadays to lean into this shaky route of claiming they never knew or imagined that something such as AI hallucinations exists is apparently living in a deeply buried cave that has no Internet access. It just doesn’t seem possible that an attorney would be oblivious to the loud and constant drumbeat about AI hallucinations. If anything, this is a condemnation of that attorney in the sense that they aren’t keeping up with the times, which they are duty-bound to do, nor do they seem to know that the ABA in 2024 promulgated attorney obligations pertaining to the rising tide of AI hallucinations.The trick of claiming such devout innocence worked quite readily for the last several years. Courts were often pushovers and tended to excuse the lack of awareness about AI hallucinations. The line was that lawyers weren’t technologists, by gosh, so how could they be held to comprehend that AI can hallucinate? I say that’s bogus. I’ve been an unrelenting force to declare that this type of excuse was malarky at the get-go. It doesn’t matter that AI hallucinates. What matters is that an at...