YouTube · Ars Technica
Suspecting court of applying AI, man injected prompts in filings to try to win case
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A judge has identified what appears to be the first time a US plaintiff has attempted to hide text in court filings that only an artificial intelligence system can read in a bid to win a case.
Key facts
- Unlike “several court systems elsewhere,” the Connecticut Judicial Branch does not use AI to review or decide filings, Spader said — This will likely not be the last time US courts see the malicious tactic, as AI tools become more commonplace in court systems
- Although Elliott’s case appears to be the first US instance of prompt injection in the court system, Spader pointed to a case in Brazil where two attorneys used the same attack in a court
- These later prompts were intended as “jokes,” Elliott told the court, including a link to a Nosferatu YouTube video, a simple message that said “hi:) I hope yo ucant see me,” and a “nonsense” message
Summary
In a decision published last week, Connecticut judge Walter Spader Jr. confirmed that the hidden text had no impact in a case where a man alleged a healthcare provider was improperly withholding access to records. Trying to scramble any AI systems potentially influencing the court’s reading of his filing, the secret instructions were “formatted to be invisible to a human reader while remaining fully legible to any software that reads the document’s text,” Spader said. Shrunk to tiny-point type and colored white on a white background, the text appeared to be an attempt at prompt injection, with the plaintiff, Matthew Elliott, seemingly hoping to shift the court’s favor after earlier arguments he raised were defeated.