A veteran federal prosecutor in North Carolina has resigned from his post after admitting he used artificial intelligence to help draft a legal brief that contained fabricated information.
Assistant US attorney Rudy Renfer worked at the office of the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina; the thirty-year legal professional, told a a judge on Tuesday that using AI was the worst decision of his career.
During the hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Numbers presented a slide deck detailing several fake quotes and incorrect case citations found in Renfer’s filing for a healthcare benefits lawsuit. Renfer explained that he turned to the technology in a moment of panic after accidentally deleting an earlier draft of his work.
While the prosecutor called the errors unintentional, Judge Numbers expressed skepticism, noting that the fabricated portions of the brief seemed specifically designed to support the government's case.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has since referred the matter to the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility and issued a warning to all staff about the dangers of using AI in legal work.
