AI × Law

The Ninth Circuit vacated a preliminary injunction against Perplexity AI in Amazon v. Perplexity, holding that an AI agent is a tool and the human user is the party 'accessing' a website under the CFAA and CDAFA. The decision provides the first major federal appellate guidance on anti-hacking statutory liability for agentic AI tools.

Florida's Eleventh Judicial Circuit issued Administrative Order 26-04, requiring all attorneys and pro se litigants to explicitly disclose GenAI use on court filings. Anyone using GenAI must include a specific certification confirming they independently verified all factual assertions, legal authority, and citations.

Nine tech companies—including Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft—face proposed class actions in Chicago federal court alleging they illegally extracted voiceprints from podcasts and audiobooks to train AI models without consent. Filed under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), the lawsuits mark a major shift from copyright to privacy-based litigation over AI training data.

A court ruled that an author's allegations regarding Adobe's alleged use of pirated books to train NVIDIA's Nemotron AI models were too conclusory to establish standing. The decision highlights the strict pleading standards plaintiffs face in AI copyright litigation.

An appellate court has issued what experts call the first ruling addressing agentic AI, offering a blueprint on consent and server access for AI developers. Legal experts note that while the decision is limited in scope, it signals how courts will evaluate AI agent liability and user consent going forward.

A Connecticut Superior Court judge sanctioned a self-represented litigant who embedded invisible white-on-white text in filings instructing any AI reviewing the document to rule in his favor. Judge Walter Spader Jr. revoked the litigant's electronic filing privileges, requiring future submissions on paper to eliminate hidden digital commands.

U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro dismissed a lawsuit against a Nevada family court judge who was accused of delegating her decision-making authority entirely to AI. The court held that issuing rulings is an official judicial function protected by absolute judicial immunity, regardless of whether AI was actually used.

McDermott Will & Schulte is recruiting a dedicated Director of Attorney AI Learning & Strategy to lead the firm's AI curricula, credentialing, and practice-based training. The role will oversee cross-functional AI implementation across practice groups while addressing risk, supervision, and core legal skills retention.

A group of journalists, podcasters, and audiobook narrators filed class action lawsuits against nine tech giants including Apple, Meta, and Microsoft in Chicago federal court. Rather than relying on copyright law, the claims allege violations of Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) for using unauthorized voice data to train AI models.

Legal tech startup Harvey has launched Harvey Tenet, its first model built on an open-weight base rather than closed proprietary systems from OpenAI or Anthropic. The San Francisco firm post-trained Chinese lab Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 base model to achieve specialized legal performance at lower inference costs.

The Third Circuit has heard oral arguments in Thomson Reuters v. Ross Intelligence, setting up the first federal appellate ruling on fair use and AI training. The decision could clarify how market harm and transformative use apply to legal AI models trained on proprietary headnotes.

Indian courts are rapidly expanding the scope of personality rights to combat AI-driven threats like deepfakes, synthetic voices, and unauthorized commercial likenesses. The judiciary's evolving legal framework aims to protect public figures and private individuals from unauthorized AI exploitation in the absence of comprehensive statutory regulation.

Nine major tech companies—including Apple, Meta, Microsoft, and ElevenLabs—face potential class-action lawsuits in Chicago federal court alleging they used human voice recordings without consent to train AI models. Filed by civil rights firm Loevy & Loevy on behalf of journalists and podcasters, the suits claim violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) and seek hundreds of millions in damages.

IP intelligence platform Patlytics has introduced Agent, an AI reasoning layer designed for patent litigation, prosecution, and portfolio management. Powered by 150+ pre-built skills, the system integrates with a database of 145 million patents and 40 million case law records to automate tasks like claim construction support and initial case assessments.

Clio has completed its $1 billion acquisition of legal research platform vLex while securing $500 million in Series G funding at a $5 billion valuation. The massive capital injection and acquisition significantly expand Clio's capabilities, positioning it as a major competitive force in legal operations and AI-driven research.

Epiq Advisory has announced a strategic partnership with agentic legal AI provider Legora. The collaboration aims to help law firms and corporate legal departments deploy and operationalize enterprise AI across workflows such as contract intelligence and M&A due diligence.

Florida's Second District Court of Appeal issued a $1,500 fine, awarded opposing attorney's fees, and referred a 40-year veteran lawyer to The Florida Bar after finding 46 hallucinated or misrepresented citations across two briefs. The court rejected the attorney's defense that he did not realize generative AI could produce fake legal authority, noting the technology appeared to be his primary research tool.

The Ninth Circuit vacated a preliminary injunction against Perplexity AI, ruling that Amazon was unlikely to succeed on its Computer Fraud and Abuse Act claims. The court held that the human user operating an AI agent—not the AI developer—is responsible for the websites the agent accesses.

Ethiopia is expanding AI adoption in its justice system under its Digital Ethiopia 2030 strategy, deploying an AI-powered Smart Court System across 24 federal branches for voice-to-text transcription and virtual hearings. Law enforcement has launched AI-driven self-service police kiosks, while a local legal tech market featuring platforms like Chllot and HegAwaqi is emerging to provide automated legal research.

Recent court rulings reveal a growing divide over whether using public AI tools waives legal protections. While the Southern District of New York ruled that a represented defendant's unassisted AI use waived privilege, other courts in Michigan, Colorado, and New York have shielded AI-assisted legal prep as protected work product for pro se litigants.