--- title: "Judge Goes Ballistic When Man Shows AI-Generated Video in Court" description: "A 74-year-old entrepreneur played an entirely AI-generated video of a male avatar to address the judge during a court appearance." date: "2025-04-13" modified: "2025-04-13" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/judge-ai-generated-video-court" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "courts" - "generative ai" - "judge" --- # Judge Goes Ballistic When Man Shows AI-Generated Video in Court ![A 74-year-old entrepreneur played an entirely AI-generated video of a male avatar to address the judge during a court appearance.]() *\Image: Appellate Division, First Department via YouTube\* A 74-year-old entrepreneur played an entirely AI-generated video of a male avatar to address the judge during a court appearance on his behalf. And as [*The Register* reports](), the judge was extremely unimpressed by the stunt, and proceeded to chew him out. Plaintiff Jerome Dewald [appeared before the New York State's Supreme Court]() on March 26 as part of an employment dispute with an insurance company called MassMutual Metro. "Now may it please the court, I come here today a humble pro se before a panel of five distinguished justices," said a well-groomed, sweater-wearing AI avatar — who looks roughly three decades younger than Dewald — in the video. But the video was interrupted almost immediately. "Is this … hold on? Is that counsel for the case?" a confused associate justice Sallie Manzanet-Daniels asked. "That? I generated that," a proud and in-the-flesh Dewald responded from inside the courtroom. "That is not a real person," he clarified sheepishly. "It would have been nice to know that when you made your application," Manzanet-Daniels responded angrily. "You did not tell me that, sir." The use of AI in the courtroom has already proven highly controversial, with [several lawyers]() [being raked over the coals]() for using ChatGPT and not realizing it had come up with entirely fictional case law. In the case of Dewald, the judge tore him out for claiming that a medical condition — a bout with throat cancer around 25 years ago — had left him incapable of addressing the court directly since he already had "verbal conversations with our staff for over 30 minutes." "I don't appreciate being misled," she added. "So either you are suffering from an ailment that prevents you from being able to articulate or you don't. You are not going to use this courtroom as a launch for your business, sir." Dewald has a startup, called Pro Se Pro, which is designed to help litigants represent themselves by creating realistic video avatars. As Dewald later told the *Register* in an interview, the court had given him permission for a presentation. But they "were unprepared to see an artificially generated image," he said. "Extended speaking is problematic for me," he explained. Dewald was originally going to use a separate service called Tavus to create an AI avatar of his face, but ran out of time. (It's unclear whether Tavus and Pro Se Pro are in any way related). Instead, he "just used one of their stock replicas, that big, beautiful hunk of a guy that they call Jim." Dewald also acknowledged that the use of AI may end up hurting your case "because there's such a negative view of hallucinations and AI," he told the *Register*. **More on AI in court:** *[Large Law Firm Sends Panicked Email as It Realizes Its Attorneys Have Been Using AI to Prepare Court Documents]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()