A Stanford University “misinformation expert” has been accused of using artificial intelligence (AI) to fabricate testimony later filed by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in a politically charged case.
Jeff Hancock, professor of communications and founder of the school’s vaunted Social Media Lab has announced an expert in a case involving conservative satirical YouTuber Christopher Kohls. The court case is about Minnesota’s ban on political deepfakes. which the plaintiff argued was an attack on freedom of speech
Hancock’s testimony was submitted to the court by Ellison, who is arguing the legal issue. Hancock is “well known for his research on how people use technology to deceive. from sending text messages and emails to detecting fake online reviews,” according to the Stanford website.
But plaintiffs’ lawyers have asked a Minnesota federal judge hearing the case to dismiss the plea deal. It accused Hancock of citing false research studies.
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A professor from Stanford University has been accused of using AI language models to write expert announcements. (Getty Images)
“(The) Declaration of Prof. Jeff Hancock refers to a study that does not exist,” lawyers argue in the latest 36-page memo. “There is no article by title.”
This “study” is called “The Influence of Deepfake Videos on Political Attitudes and Behavior” and was purportedly published in Journal of Information Technology and Politics– at Nov. 16 files It is noted that this journal is accurate. But no research has ever been published under that name.
“It is published. But the page it refers to belongs to an unrelated article,” the lawyer argued. “It is possible that this study is a ‘hallucination’ created by a large-scale AI language model like ChatGPT.”
“Plaintiff does not know how this hallucination ended in Hancock’s statement. But the plaintiff called all the documents suspicious. Especially when the majority opinion has no methodology or logic to the analysis.”
The document also quotes Ellison, arguing that “the conclusions Ellison relied upon had no methodology behind them and consisted of experts who said so.”
“Hancock may cite actual studies similar to those proposed in paragraph 21,” the memo states, “but the existence of references to the Hancock character He (or his assistant) did not bother to click on the line to question the quality and veracity of the entire announcement.”
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Chat applications Microsoft Bing Chat and ChatGPT AI appear on mobile devices in this photo illustration in Warsaw. Poland on July 21, 2023 (Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The memo also adds allegations that the references are fake. It noted that there were many searches where lawyers attempted to find research studies.
“The name of the alleged article and even some examples It does not appear anywhere on the Internet as indexed by Google and Bing, the two most commonly used search engines,” the document states. “A search of Google Scholar, a search engine dedicated to academic papers and patent publications, No articles were found matching the description of the citation written by ‘Hwang’ (claimed author), which includes the word ‘deepfake’.”
“Maybe this was just a copy-and-paste error, it wasn’t,” the filing later states bluntly. “This article does not exist.”
The lawyer concluded that If the declaration is partially forged It’s completely unreliable. and should be withdrawn from court consideration.
“Professor Hancock’s announcement should be completely excluded. Because it is at least partially based on artificial materials that may have been generated by the AI model, which calls into question its assertion,” the document concludes, “Courts may inquire into the origin of the forgery. and there may be a summons to take additional action.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison speaks on stage on day three of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 21, 2024 in Chicago. Illinois (Getty Images)
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Fox News Digital has reached out to Ellison, Hancock and Stanford University for comment.
