The Use of Artificial Intelligence and Social Media During Your Family Law Matter

The use of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) and social media have become commonplace in our daily lives.  If you are involved in a family law matter, we must caution you regarding the use of both AI and social media during this time.  While these tools may seem helpful, so much of the information found using AI for research is inaccurate, misleading, and blatantly false.  The Internet, in general, is full of false information and there is no good way to determine fact from fiction.  As attorneys, we must continually update our information regarding the law through continuing legal education courses and membership in our various bar associations.  Relying on AI generated advice or documents can hurt your case and may conflict with actual legal advice and strategy.  It can also cause you to incur more legal fees since your attorney must then explain those inaccuracies and why it is not relevant to your case or contrary to the actual laws involved in your case. 

         An even greater risk is putting personal information into online platforms like Chat GPT or any other form of artificial intelligence, including chat bots or Amazon Alexa.   Once your personal information is “out there” in cyberspace, you cannot retrieve it or control it.  It can be seen by the opposing party involved in your case and can be used in court to your detriment.  It can also be harvested by scammers and hackers and used to compromise your identity and finances.  The security risks to you are great when you use those platforms.  The best solution is don’t do it. 

Finally, we must caution you about using social media while your family law case is pending.  Posting things on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok or X that you don’t want the other party to see can have serious consequences and can hurt your case dramatically.  It can even be used in court as evidence.  Even if the other party is blocked or not connected with you on certain platforms, posts can still be discovered by a friend or relative who might inadvertently or intentionally pass it on to them.  Do not post photos of your children, any new significant other, travel, finances, partying, or things that you have purchased, like a new car.  We have seen things that appear innocent, or posted as a joke, turned into controversial matters and dragged into court.   We don’t want that to happen to you. The safest way to proceed is to not post anything while your case is still active.