In a surprising turn of events, former President Donald Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, submitted a motion for early termination of his supervised release that included non-existent legal cases generated by an artificial intelligence program. Cohen had sought to bolster his argument by providing citations from an AI program called Google Bard, mistakenly believing it to be a highly advanced search engine.

Cohen, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations in 2018, had hoped to convince the court to end his term of supervised release prematurely. However, it was revealed that the legal citations were not sourced from actual cases, but rather generated by Chat-GPT, an AI-powered text generator. Cohen's lawyer, David M. Schwartz, explained that Cohen had misunderstood the capabilities of Google Bard, assuming it was a search engine that provided genuine legal citations.

Schwartz maintained that the inclusion of these invalid citations was a result of "sloppiness, not malicious intent." He clarified that he had assumed the legal cases were found by another attorney working on Cohen's behalf, Danya Perry. Had Schwartz known that the cases originated from an AI program, he would have conducted further research before including them in the motion.

The revelation has prompted Judge Jesse Furman to consider imposing sanctions in response to the inclusion of non-existent legal cases. Both Cohen and his attorney have submitted letters to the court, expressing their regret and acknowledging their lack of understanding regarding legal technology and the risks associated with AI-generated texts.

Cohen himself stated in a sworn statement that he was unaware of the limitations of Google Bard and believed the citations to be real. The judge has given all parties until January 3 to present additional comments on possible sanctions and whether Cohen should be granted early termination of his supervised release.

The incident underscores the need for legal professionals to stay informed about emerging technologies and understand the sources of information they rely on. As AI continues to advance, it is crucial for attorneys to verify the authenticity of legal citations and avoid any unintentional misrepresentation in court filings.

It remains to be seen whether the inclusion of these non-existent cases will have any impact on Cohen's plea for early release. The court's decision will have significant implications for the former Trump attorney, as he seeks to move forward from his past legal troubles.