Drug offender caught using ChatGPT to forge petition in court

A drug criminal, surnamed Kim, submitted a fabricated petition writen by ChatGPT in November 2023 to a Prosecutors' Office and a court. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has entered the legal realm as Korea recently got its first case of generative AI-based forgery in court.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office indicted a person surnamed Kim, 32, for illegally creating and forging documents after he submitted to prosecutors a fake petition written by ChatGPT.

Kim, who operated a viral marketing company, was previously sentenced to 15 months in prison for using and possessing illegal drugs, including methamphetamines, commonly known as philopon in Korea, by a court on Jan. 11.

The court transferred Kim to a detention center last October during his trial, citing Kim's risk of flight and tampering with evidence based on his attitude in court.

After being detained, Kim submitted a number of petitions signed under several names, including his family and friends, in an attempt to receive bail or reduce his sentence.

The court, however, found that one petition was written by the open AI program ChatGPT.

The fabricated petition was submitted in November last year and pleaded in favor of Kim, saying that Kim actively worked for the public alongside Gyeonggi’s Goyang City Sports Council, signed in a council employee’s name.

According to the Prosecutors' Office, the petition began by respectfully addressing the prosecutor, followed by a series of falsities.

“As a former council’s youth committee chairman, Kim worked hard to develop the local community and support the youth,” the petition said. “The youth committee, under Kim's leadership, encouraged local youth to participate in various programs and activities.”

“Kim made opportunities for the citizens to actively participate in sports and other physical activities by paying attention to the development of the physical education field,” it added. “Kim enhanced the health and social network among the citizens of Goyang and brought a positive change to the local community.”

A prosecutor discovered the petition was fake after raising suspicions while reviewing it.

The prosecutor said some parts were irrelevant to Kim’s activities and crime, such as a line that read, "[Kim] stood up and fought alone for justice against situations where nobody was willing to solve.”

“[The petition] seemed to have been written by someone who didn’t know much about the council’s work,” the prosecutor who reviewed the petition said, according to a local media report.

“The assigned prosecutor became suspicious as there were no specific activities mentioned in the document, and the overall style was off as if it was translated,” the prosecutors’ office said. “We started an investigation from Jan. 16 to 30 to confirm whether it was written using Google Translate or a documentation generator.”

Following the investigation, it was confirmed that Kim asked an acquaintance to write a petition for him using ChatGPT.

Kim also fabricated the employee’s signature on the petition using his thumbprint.

According to the Prosecutors' Office, Kim handed over a Goyang City Sports Council employee’s business card to the acquaintance and asked the person to generate a document using keywords such as “Goyang City Sports Council,” “public interest activities” and “solve election problem within the party.”

It was later found that the employee and Kim never knew each other and that Kim never participated in any public interest activities with the council. It was also revealed that Kim never worked as a youth committee chairman in Goyang.

“Concerns were rising regarding the abuse of Open AI technology such as ChatGPT used in tampering with evidence and spreading fabricated documents and videos,” the Prosecutors’ Office said. “Kim’s case was an actual example of such concerns.”

“We plan to strictly counteract AI-abusing crimes in the future.”

BY KIM JUNG-MIN, KIM JI-YE [kim.jiye@joongang.co.kr]