Making Bad Worse
As if fake citations weren’t enough, Carey also admitted the brief containing the fictional cases was filed late—another strike against the legal team’s credibility with the court. “While late submissions are a reality in litigation, we are strengthening our procedures to ensure that our review process accounts for this issue in the future,” he said, in what might qualify as the legal profession’s most understated mea culpa of 2025.
The attorney who created the AI-enhanced documents has notably not filed a formal appearance in the case, meaning she’s not officially representing the plaintiffs. Whether that’s strategic legal maneuvering or professional damage control remains unclear.
The Irony of AI Fact-Checking AI
There’s a delicious irony buried in this mess: OnlyFans’ legal team used Westlaw to verify the fake citations, but Westlaw itself now incorporates AI tools directly into its platform. So essentially, they used one AI system to fact-check another AI system’s hallucinations. It’s AI fact-checking all the way down, with humans somewhere in the middle hoping it all works out.
