Incident 1257: Argentine Court Reportedly Annuls Criminal Conviction After Judge Allegedly Used ChatGPT to Draft Ruling Without Disclosure

Description: The Penal Chamber of Esquel, Argentina, reportedly annulled a June 2025 robbery conviction after determining that Judge Carlos Rogelio Richeri had allegedly used ChatGPT to draft part of the ruling without disclosure or human oversight. A copied phrase purportedly exposed AI authorship, prompting findings of due-process violations and data-handling concerns. The case was reassigned, and the Chubut Superior Court opened an ethics investigation.

Editor Notes: A note on the harmed party: Although the annulment ultimately favored the defendant, he is listed as a harmed party because the alleged improper use of AI in the original ruling constituted a violation of due process at the time the judgment was issued. A note on the timeline: Date reflects the original ruling (06/04/2025) in which generative AI content was allegedly used. The annulment occurred in October 2025 following appellate review. The incident ID was added to the AIID on 11/08/2025.

Tools

New Report New Response DiscoverView History

Entities

View all entities

Alleged: OpenAI developed an AI system deployed by Carlos Rogelio Richeri, which harmed Justice system of Argentina , Judicial integrity , Epistemic integrity , Juzgado Penal de Esquel and Raúl Amelio Payalef.

Alleged implicated AI system: ChatGPT

Incident Stats

Incident ID

1257

Report Count

Incident Date

2025-06-04

Editors

Daniel Atherton

Applied Taxonomies

MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified

Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

5.1. Overreliance and unsafe use

Risk Domain

Human-Computer Interaction

Entity

Human

Timing

Post-deployment

Intent

Unintentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Justice overturned: a ruling was invalidated due to the misuse of AI

documento.errepar.com

The judge in Esquel who used Chat to draft a sentence will be investigated.

lanacion.com.ar

Artificial Intelligence: Sentence overturned because a judge used a ChatGPT and a phrase gave him away.

perfil.com

documento.errepar.com · 2025

AI Translated

The Criminal Court of Esquel overturned a conviction for simple theft after discovering that the judge used generative artificial intelligence without human oversight or traceability, violating constitutional and ethical principles.

The Cri…

lanacion.com.ar · 2025

AI Translated

The Criminal Court of Esquel decided on Wednesday to annul, ex officio, a sentence handed down on June 4 by Judge Carlos Rogelio Richeri, who had sentenced Raúl Amelio Payalef to two years and six months of effective imprisonment.

The reaso…

perfil.com · 2025

AI Translated

The Esquel Criminal Court overturned a sentence because the judge delegated the task to an AI-powered chatbot, and a single phrase revealed his inaction.

Improper Use of Artificial Intelligence

The court overturned the June 4, 2025, ruling …

Variants

A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.

Seen something similar?