Associated Incidents
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 by Judge Carlos Rogelio Richeri, which sentenced Raul Amelio Payalef to two years and six months of effective imprisonment.
"The court made the decision after finding that the trial judge accidentally included a phrase that reveals the use of a generative artificial intelligence (AI) assistant to draft the ruling. As a result, the trial must be held again with a different judge," reported the Chubut Public Prosecutor's Office.
The judges of the Chamber, Carina Estefanía, Martín Zacchino, and Hernán Dal Verme, ordered that "these proceedings be sent to the Superior Court of Justice with jurisdiction to investigate and determine the scope of the serious consequences produced in this process by virtue of the improper use of AI, which led to the declaration of nullity of the sentence and the trial that preceded it, with all that this implies for the litigants, for all citizens, and for the State, responsible for guaranteeing access to justice and effective judicial protection."
"Ready to copy and paste"
"The most compelling evidence of the use of generative digital intelligence was an error, when a phrase from the conversation with the artificial assistant was incorporated into the sentence: 'Here is point IV reedited, without citations and ready to copy and paste:'", the Chubut Public Prosecutor's Office stated.
Thus, the judges considered that this evidence ("cut and paste") creates too wide a gap in determining what percentage of the text is attributable to the Generative AI (IAGen) and how much to the judge, "which strains the prohibition against delegating judicial decisions to automated systems."
According to the official body, "delegating the function of judging would violate the principle of the natural judge."
"The error demonstrated, in the eyes of the reviewing court, that the judge did not properly exercise the mandatory human supervision and control, signing the ruling with the AI citation. The omission of recording the use of the AI, as well as what was required of the assistant, prevents tracing the judge's reasoning, making the decision potentially equivalent to a merely dogmatic or unmotivated response," they argued.
"Judge's Lack of Ethics"
The Superior Court of Justice of Chubut will also have to investigate "the extent of the judge's ethical misconduct" due to the "improper use of AI" and the "serious consequences" in the criminal proceedings.
The judges also warned that Richeri "may have violated the confidentiality requirements established by Plenary Agreement No. 5435 of the Superior Court of Justice, by including the names of the parties, witnesses, and experts in the text processed by the assistant."