Cruise robotaxi dragged a pedestrian ~20 feet in San Francisco; permits suspended and $1.5M federal penalty

The FTC charged in September 2024 that DoNotPay marketed an 'AI lawyer' as a substitute for human attorneys without testing whether it performed at a lawyer's level or employing lawyers to verify quality, and that a feature claiming to scan small-business sites for legal violations was ineffective. DoNotPay settled for $193,000, agreed to notify 2021–2023 subscribers, and was barred from unsubstantiated 'robot lawyer' claims (final order January 2025).

NYC's MyCity chatbot, launched October 2023 to help business owners, was found by The Markup (March 2024) to give dangerously inaccurate legal guidance — telling users that landlords could refuse Section 8 voucher holders, that employers could take a cut of workers' tips, and that there were no limits on residential rent, all illegal under NYC/NY law. The city initially kept the bot online with a disclaimer; it was ultimately taken down.

In a personal-injury suit against Avianca, attorney Steven Schwartz used ChatGPT for research and submitted a brief citing six judicial decisions that did not exist — ChatGPT invented them and even 'confirmed' they were real when asked. U.S. District Judge Castel sanctioned Schwartz and co-counsel Peter LoDuca $5,000 and required corrective letters. It became the landmark cautionary tale about AI hallucination in legal filings.