Democrats in Minnesota have passed an unconstitutional law to ban “election misinformation.” They’re being sued by a conservative YouTuber for the obvious First Amendment violation. To help bolster their case, Democrats hired an expert witness from Stanford University’s Social Media Lab to file an affidavit with the court. Unfortunately for them, the “misinformation expert” appears to have used AI to fabricate evidence in support of the ban.
Professor Jeff Hancock charges $600 an hour for his expertise on how people use technology for deception. Hancock is now being accused of using technology to deceive the court.
Hancock’s affidavit with the court cites numerous academic studies on the “dangers” of election misinformation. However, attorneys for the plaintiffs say that some of these studies don’t exist. They appear to have been made up out of thin air by an artificial intelligence (AI) program like ChatGPT.
For example, Hancock cites a study called “The Influence of Deepfake Videos on Political Attitudes and Behavior,” which was supposedly published in an academic journal in 2023. That study doesn’t appear in the journal, and no one can find any record of the study ever taking place.
At least one more completely fake citation has been discovered in Hancock’s 12-page affidavit so far. The Reformer muses that it’s possible that Hancock’s entire document was all a “hallucination” from an AI program.
It’s unclear if Professor Hancock will face any criminal charges for submitting allegedly false evidence to the court. He’s also not taking any media inquiries into his expert work.
If anything, this should drive a stake through the evil heart of Minnesota’s anti-free speech law. This case illustrates that censorship is never the proper remedy to “misinformation.” True speech always has been and always will be the correct response.
