[Ed.’s note: I’m taking a full break this summer; the next issue of Lawyer Ex Machina will be mid-to-late August. Have a wonderful summer.]

AI

• The California State Bar’s Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct has proposed amendments to the Rules of Professional Conduct that specifically address use of AI by attorneys, including a new comment to Rule 1.1 Competence:

When using technology, including artificial intelligence, a lawyer must independently review, verify, and exercise professional judgment regarding any output generated by the technology that is used in connection with representing a client

[LawSites | CalBar notice | Proposed Changes (PDF)]

• Pennsylvania and its State Board of Medicine is suing the developer of Character.AI for “engag[ing] in the unlawful practice of medicine in Pennsylvania by allowing an AI system character to engage in conversations with the public while the character holds itself out as a licensed medical doctor” [The Hill | PA Governor news release | Complaint]

• An actress is suing James Cameron and Disney for using her facial features (from when she was 14 years old) as the foundation of the appearance of Neytiri in the Avatar movies, without the actress’s knowledge or consent; one claim is that the use of the actress’s feature in an intimate scene in one of the movies violates a California deepfake porn statute [NBC News | Docket | Complaint]

• From CNN: “Police used AI facial recognition to arrest a Tennessee woman for crimes committed in a state she says she’s never visited”

• The White House is considering a proposal to develop an AI working group that may include “a formal government review process for new A.I. models” [Platfomer ($) | NY Times ($)]

Fabrication Follies

• Fuller v. Hyde School [Docket | Order]

• Payne v. State of Georgia [Law360 ($) | Law & Crime | Fox5 Atlanta | Opinion]

Miscellaneous

• A federal judge has denied former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried his request for a new trial [Citation Needed | Ars Technica]

• Meta has fired over 1000 AI trainers after media stories about their access to videos filmed by smartglasses users, which included intimate images and sexual activity [BBC | Gizmodo]

• From TechCrunch: “Apple fixes bug that cops used to extract deleted chat messages from iPhones”

• The Free Law Project and CourtListener is opening data access to all members, with free memberships for students and academic researchers

• A hacker group launched a cyberattack on the developer of Canvas, a learning management system used by 41% of colleges and universities in the U.S., making the system inaccessible to students and faculty [CNN | Inside Higher Ed | Wired ($)]

Long Reads

• Lee, Edward, Vibe Coding Authorship (March 27, 2026), UCLA Law Review Discourse (forthcoming 2026), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6489379