Every so often, we come across a story where you simply ask the question, “What the hell were they thinking?” This is that story.
Y’all remember Pras Michel? Of course, you do. He’s the well-known Fugees rapper who was convicted of conspiracy, concealment of material facts, making false entries in records, witness tampering, and serving as an unregistered agent of a foreign power in April. As a result, he’s facing up to 20 years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
So while it’s already been determined that Michel is guilty, the rapper has hired new attorneys from ArentFox Schiff to help demand a retrial for the Fugees MC.
In a new brief filed by his legal counsel, making a case for a retrial, it stated that Michel’s previous lawyer, David Kenner, used an experimental AI program to draft the closing argument for his client’s criminal trial earlier this year.
The brief read, “Kenner generated his closing argument—perhaps the single most important portion of any jury trial—using a proprietary prototype AI program in which he and Alon Israely appear to have had an undisclosed financial stake.”
It later continued, “Kenner’s closing argument made frivolous arguments, misapprehended the required elements, conflated the schemes, and ignored critical weaknesses in the Government’s case. The closing was damaging to the defense.”
The craziest part about this, Kenner didn’t hide this from his client. He allegedly bragged about it to Michel after he was convicted of the charges, saying, “The system turned hours or days of legal work into seconds.”
I’m not on Michel’s side or anything, but now I see why he changed legal counsel. Not only are his new lawyers contending that Michel’s previous counsel used an AI program to write a closing argument, but they’re also claiming they did it because it was in their financial interest. That’s not good.
The AI program Kenner used, EyeLevel.AI, has been open about its involvement in Michel’s trial and even released a press release in May that read, “EyeLevel.AI’s litigation assistance technology made history last week, becoming the first use of generative AI in a federal trial.”
The press release also includes a quote from Kenner, who praised the technology.
Michel’s sentencing date has not been scheduled.