Rodrigues, who works in the state of Acre (north), based his sentence on false procedural records, attributed to the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ), one of the highest courts in Brazil, according to the investigation request consulted this Monday by the AFP.
According to the document, the magistrate alleged that the decision drafted with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) was prepared by a “trusted advisor.”
“The disagreements occurred due to the use of some virtual tool that proved inadequate,” the magistrate defended.
Rodrigues described the situation as “a mere misunderstanding” originating from the “frequent overload of work that falls on the shoulders of the judges.”
The magistrate also said that the author of the mistake was an “experienced” advisor to his cabinet, so he saw no need to “review” each of the wrongly cited jurisprudence.
“We believe that this is the first case” of this type, said the CNJ, which gave Judge Rodrigues 15 days, starting last Wednesday, to provide clarifications.
According to the CNJ itself, more and more Brazilian courts have used artificial intelligence tools, although the technology has not yet been regulated by law.
Before the CNJ’s decision, a regional magistrate’s office had decided to archive the investigation, since it did not detect any “disciplinary infraction” by Rodrigues or his assistant.
He warned, however, about the “damages that may be caused by the inappropriate use of artificial intelligence tools” for the search for procedural records.