A 74-year-old entrepreneur, Jerome Dewald, recently faced a judge's wrath in New York State Supreme Court due to an AI-generated video he played in court. Dewald, involved in a labor dispute with MassMutual Metro, attempted to use a virtual AI avatar to represent himself. This attempt, however, was met with disapproval and anger from the judge.
In court, Dewald played a video featuring an AI-generated male avatar. The virtual spokesperson, appearing younger than Dewald by about thirty years and dressed impeccably, began with, "Your Honor, I come before you today with humility." Judge Sallie Manzanet-Daniels, clearly perplexed, immediately asked, "What is that? Is that counsel for the case?" Dewald explained, "I generated that." Upon learning it was a virtual image, the judge angrily retorted, "You didn't tell me that, sir."
Image Source Note: Image generated by AI, licensed by Midjourney
Dewald was subsequently reprimanded for claiming a 25-year-old throat cancer diagnosis prevented him from speaking directly in court. The judge pointed out his over 30-minute verbal exchange with court staff contradicted his statement. The judge exclaimed, "I don't like being misled, and you can't use the court to promote your business plan."
Dewald runs a startup, Pro Se Pro, aiming to help individuals represent themselves in legal proceedings using realistic video avatars. In an interview, he expressed surprise at the court's reaction. He initially planned to use a service called Tavus to create a personalized AI avatar but opted for a pre-made model due to time constraints. "This handsome fella, they call him Jim," Dewald quipped.
While acknowledging the potential impact of his AI usage on the case outcome, particularly given public negativity towards AI "hallucinations," Dewald hopes to find new avenues of expression within the courtroom setting.
