Sullivan & Cromwell apologizes for AI hallucinations in bankruptcy court filing
Sullivan & Cromwell, a major Wall Street law firm, apologized to a federal bankruptcy judge for a court filing containing AI-generated errors including fabricated case citations and misquoted authorities. The errors were discovered by opposing counsel and the firm acknowledged its AI safeguard policies were not followed.
What happened
Sullivan & Cromwell submitted a motion in US Bankruptcy Court in New York containing errors generated by artificial intelligence tools. Andrew Dietderich, a partner at the firm, wrote an apology letter to Judge Martin Glenn on April 18 acknowledging the errors.
The motion contained inaccurate citations, fabricated case citations, misquoted authorities, and non-existent legal sources. The errors were discovered by lawyers from the opposing firm Boies Schiller Flexner.
Reported impact
The firm's AI safeguard policies were not followed and the errors made it past the firm's internal citation review process. Dietderich stated the firm takes responsibility for the failure and committed to submitting a corrected filing.
Index analysis
The incident reflects that AI hallucinations producing fabricated legal citations have become more common in legal work since 2023, according to legal researcher Damien Charlotin.
Governance controls
Sullivan & Cromwell stated it has comprehensive policies regarding AI use and safeguards designed to prevent such errors, but acknowledged these policies were not followed in this instance.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
This record was researched and written by the Index from original reporting. Its sources are still being verified by an editor, and they are listed here once that check is complete. Until then the record carries no reviewer.