A father, embroiled in a dispute with his ex-wife over access to his children, was issued a court order himself after submitting “AI hallucinated material” from ChatGPT in his personal protection order (PPO) application.
A family court magistrate had found that none of the 14 “relevant local legal precedents” that the self-represented man had cited in his applications were legitimate cases.
According to a written judgment made available on Wednesday (Sept 10), the case involved two former spouses who returned to court after their divorce to seek PPOs for themselves and their two daughters against the other.
Their dispute centred around two main incidents in March, which arose out of access arrangements for the two children.
“The father was evidently frustrated by what he perceived to be the mother’s attempt to deny him access to the children in spite of the court order that was made,” said Magistrate Soh Kian Peng.
“The mother evidently felt justified in acting the way she did on the basis that she, as well as the children, felt threatened by how the father had behaved during his period of time.”
‘Obviously fictitious cases’
Apart from referring to provisions of the Women’s Charter that were inapplicable, Soh said that the man, in his written submission, also cited 14 cases which he said were similar to his own.
“While some of them, at first blush, are quite obviously fictitious cases given that case names of Family Court are redacted, others appear, at first blush, to be legitimate cases,” said Soh.
When questioned, the man said that he had used ChatGPT to generate relevant local legal precedents, but did not verify the cases before including them in his submission.
The man was also not aware that the family court had a guide on the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools by court users.
While the use of AI to prepare court documents is not prohibited, users, self-represented or not, are responsible for ensuring that all information provided to the court is accurate and relevant.
To guard against the citation of “AI hallucinated material”, Soh has ordered the man to declare in writing if he uses generative AI in preparing any document for submission to the court in future.
He must also declare to the court that he has complied with the relevant guide.
“I considered this approach to be one that struck a fair balance between the use of generative AI and ensuring that the court is not taken by surprise by the product of AI hallucinations,” said Soh.
PPO applications dismissed
As part of her PPO application, the mother included CCTV footage of two main incidents which Soh said provided a view on how the ex-spouses acted towards each other.
Soh said it showed both the father and mother were “engaging in a tug of war over their eldest child who was caught up in the center of their dispute”.
“Their actions, however, did not, in my judgement, cross the line and stray into the realm of either physical abuse, emotional or psychological abuse,” he added.
He also found that neither parent was likely to commit family violence to their children, as each of them cares for them in their own way.
To that end, Soh dismissed their PPO applications, and ordered the man to pay costs of $1,000 to the mother.
He concluded his judgement by reading a poem to both parents, and advised them to not let their personal animosity with each other stand in the way of their children’ s developmental needs.
Titled On Children by Kahlil Gibran, it has the following lines:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
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Chingshijie@asiaone.com
