Stanford Prof. Uses AI in Expert Witness Statement

Article he cites does not exist

A leading misinformation expert is being accused of citing non-existent sources to defend Minnesota’s new law banning election misinformation.

Professor Jeff Hancock from the Stanford Social Media Lab submitted a legal argument in support of a Minnesota deepfake bill, but it reportedly includes citations made up by AI. (PC Magazine 11/24).

Minnesota has proposed a law that will enforce legal restrictions on using deepfakes around election time. Professor Jeff Hancock, a founding director of the Stanford Social Media Lab, submitted a legal argument in support of the bill, the Minnesota Reformer reports.

Professor Hancock is a well-known name in the field of misinformation. One of his TED talks, “The Future of Lying,” has racked up over 1.5 million views on YouTube, and he also stars in a documentary on misinformation that is available on Netflix. ¹

Stanford Professor Allegedly Includes Fake AI Citations in Filing on Deepfake Bill |

Defendant Ellison filed two expert declarations he contends demonstrate Minn. Stat. §609.771 “actually necessary” and counterspeech “insufficient” to address AI-generated deepfakes.

But the Declaration of Prof. Jeff Hancock cites a study that does not exist. No article by the title exists. The publication exists (Journal of Information Technology & Politics), but the cited pages belong to unrelated articles. Likely, the study was a “hallucination” generated by an AI large language model like ChatGPT. A part-fabricated declaration is unreliable.

PLAINTIFFS’ MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN SUPPORT OF DAUBERT MOTION TO EXCLUDE EXPERT DECLARATIONS²

1. Will McCurdy, Stanford Professor Allegedly Includes Fake AI Citations in Filing on Deepfake Bill | PC Mag. November 24, 2024.

2. PLAINTIFFS’ MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN SUPPORT OF DAUBERT MOTION TO EXCLUDE EXPERT DECLARATIONS is here: gov.uscourts.mnd.220348.30.0.pdf