As generative artificial intelligence transitions quickly from an intellectual curiosity to a courtroom reality, judges should keep asking questions but not deny the technology's potential benefits out of hand, experts told the annual Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference gathering in Sacramento on Monday.

Speaking to a partially filled ballroom of judges and lawyers, two academics and a Microsoft Corp. executive ran through a litany of experienced and feared misuses of AI, including hallucinated case cites, manipulated or fake evidence and technology relying on bad data spewing false information.