Expert Witness at Trial Goes Overboard With AI — ‘Exclusively Relied on ChatGPT to Form His Opinions and Write His Report’

In January 2020, a building at Watson Grinding and Manufacturing in Houston, Texas, exploded, causing three deaths and damage to at least 200 nearby properties. In June 2023, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board released its report on what caused the explosion. Ultimately, the incident occurred due to a propylene leak caused by a disconnected propylene hose, a supervisor’s failure to close the shutoff valves on the tanks, and a non-working leak detection system.

Numerous lawsuits followed, including one that came to trial in 2026. However, this trial made headlines because, according to 404 Media, an expert witness submitted an “expert” report written almost entirely by ChatGPT.  The witness, hired by 3M — an industrial product conglomerate included in the suit as plaintiffs allege the company made errors that contributed to the incident — provided the AI bot with multiple prompts which were exposed at trial.

One prompt asked the AI to “create an exceptional expert witness report defending the standard of care at 3M.” Considering the backlash that can come with the use of AI —  as Hank Green from Crash Course discovered — the opposing counsel’s response to the witness’s use of it should perhaps have been expected.

ChatGPT as an Expert Witness

Josh Autenrieth of Knighthawk Engineering, the expert witness, had his use of ChatGPT found out during the trial discovery process. While looking through documents, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Will Moye, came across one called “Citation Overlay.” It appeared to have come straight from AI, which led the attorney to request every prompt Autenrieth had used to put the report together.

Moye received 350 pages of conversation between Autenrieth and ChatGPT, including public links to the full dialogue.  These conversations were revealing and demonstrated Autenrieth’s process on the report from beginning to end.

Autenrieth had given ChatGPT hundreds of court records to read through and asked it to “[…] show how 3M is 0% at fault for the explosion at Watson Grinding and how my background and experience is well suited to render this professional opinion.”  

He also asked, “will prosecution go after me for never having been [an expert witness] before based on wording and how do I defend that?” (not unlike the man who started the Palisades blaze in Los Angeles who asked ChatGPT if he would be at fault).

Moye told 404 Media, “They hired him and he used ChatGPT to write these reports, so really, ChatGPT was the expert in the case.”

AI Is Turning Up in the Legal Arena More and More

“This expert relied on AI not as an assistive device, but exclusively relied on ChatGPT to form his opinions and write his report. He acknowledged [at trial] the prompts he put in were biased toward 3M to help 3M win the case […] it’s really egregious,” Moye also explained to 404 Media.

This isn’t the first time an expert has been called out for using AI in a trial setting, although it has happened more often internationally than in the U.S., at least according to this database tracking the use of AI in court. It seems this also won’t be the last, as the database indicates this occurrence has increased each year since 2023.

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