ace‘A serious failure’: CPS prosecutor cites imaginary case to high court after AI search
A senior crown prosecutor acting in a high court case cited an imaginary legal precedent in an error that has sparked fresh concerns about AI hallucinations infecting the justice system. Ravinder Dhillon, representing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), referenced an entirely made-up case during a dispute over whether a child should be prosecuted for the rape of his younger sister, court documents have revealed. Her explanation for how the nonexistent case came to be relied on has been called “unsatisfactory” b…
A senior CPS prosecutor submitted a nonexistent precedent, apparently drawn from an AI search summary, to argue for prosecuting a child, raising fresh concerns about AI errors undermining trust in the justice system.
The high court said the fictitious citation did not affect the outcome of the challenge, and the true scale of AI errors is unclear because many lower court decisions are never published.
Evidence
- JournalismThe Guardian2026-11-03
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Truvace Impact Record TRV-2026-2352, v1: “‘A serious failure’: CPS prosecutor cites imaginary case to high court after AI search.” Truvace, 2026-11-03. /record/TRV-2026-2352 (accessed at citation time). sha256 ce908ab483b38970…
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