A New York attorney has to convince a judge that the he doesn’t deserve sanctions after admitting his firm used “bogus” legal research obtained through ChatGPT for a personal injury case.

Attorney Steven Schwartz, an attorney with Levidow, Levidow & Oberman, submitted a brief containing several references to non-existent cases his legal team gathered through the artificial intelligence chatbot program.

Schwartz, who has been an attorney for more than 30 years, had helped prepare legal research for his colleague Peter LoDuca for a case involving a man suing Avianca Airlines for injuries he argues were sustained from a serving cart that was being pushed by an employee on the airline in 2019.

But U.S. Judge Kevin Castel of the Southern District of New York said in an order that the submission contained six cases that ‘appear to be bogus judicial decisions with bogus quotes and bogus internal citations.”

“The Court is presented with an unprecedented circumstance,” Castel said.

The non-existent cases in the filing included Varghese v. China South Airlines, Martinez v. Delta Airlines, Shaboon v. EgyptAir, Petersen v. Iran Air, Miller v. United Airlines, and Estate of Durden v. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

In a written statement to Castel, the lawyer attached screenshots showing a conversation between Schwartz and ChatGPT.

“Is varghese a real case,” reads one message, referencing Varghese v. China Southern Airlines Co Ltd.

“Yes,” ChatGPT responded. It “is a real case.”

“What is your source,” the user replied.

“I apologize for the confusion earlier,” ChatGPT replied. “Upon double-checking, I found the case Varghese v. China Southern Airlines Co. Ltd., 925 F.3d 1339 (11th Cir. 2019), does indeed exist and can be found on legal research databases such as Westlaw and LexisNexis. I apologize for any inconvenience or confusion my earlier responses may have caused.”

The user asked ChatGPT to confirm if the cases provided were real, and the system doubled down on finding the lawsuits in the legal databases.

Schwartz accepted responsibility for not confirming the sources, saying that it was the first time using ChatGPT as legal research and “was unaware of the possibility that its content could be false.”

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI and released in November 2022. The system, which has sparked massive criticism for its role in several industries, has warned users that it could produce inaccurate information.

Schwartz said he “greatly regrets having utilized generative artificial intelligence to supplement the legal research performed herein and will never do so in the future without absolute verification of its authenticity.”

His colleague LoDuca “had no reason to doubt the sincerity,” Schwartz said, adding he did not have direct knowledge of how the legal team acquired the research.

LoDuca must show cause why the court shouldn’t sanction him “for the use of a false and fraudulent notarization” in a hearing on June 8.

Retail giant Target has lost $10 billion in market capitalization in ten days, largely due to the backlash over prominent LGBTQ+ PRIDE displays including transgender-friendly clothing items for children.

According to a report published Sunday by The New York Post, Target’s stock price was hovering near $160.96 a share. However, viral videos showing “tuck-friendly” and “binding” bathing suits for trans-identifying kids — along with greeting cards celebrating queerness in a display clearly aimed at young children – led to calls for a boycott. Ten days later, the stock price had dropped to $138.93 per share.

A drop of $22 per share amounts to a 14% decrease in value – which translates to a $10 billion loss for the Minnesota-based company.

As soon as word began to spread across social media platforms about the retailer’s prominent PRIDE displays — which also included LGBTQ+ themed baby clothes — calls quickly began to grow louder for a boycott of the company.

According to earlier reports, Target immediately focused on damage control. Executives participated in an “emergency call” in in effort to avoid what one insider referred to as a “Bud Light situation.”

The insider told Fox News that, at least in some areas across the country, “We were given 36 hours, told to take all of our Pride stuff, the entire section, and move it into a section that’s a third the size. From the front of the store to the back of the store, you can’t have anything on mannequins and no large signage.”

The “Bud Light situation” the insider referenced was the immediate backlash and plummeting sales that followed a short-lived partnership between the Anheuser-Busch signature product and trans-identifying influencer Dylan Mulvaney. In the weeks following Mulvaney’s promotion, Anheuser-Busch has lost billions in market capitalization and at least two marketing executives connected with the partnership have been placed on leave.

By late last week, Investors Business Daily was reporting that Anheuser-Busch had already lost upwards of $17.5 billion — and the company was resorting to offering retailers the chance to sell back expired merchandise that was still sitting on shelves.