Pras from the Fugees wants his fraud conviction tossed because his lawyer used AI

Kyra Sedgwick, it ain’t.

A lawyer for Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, a founding member of the Fugees who was recently convicted of political conspiracy, allegedly used a generative AI in crafting the rapper’s closing arguments. Ready or not, Pras is now moving to have his conviction tossed because, while AI might be great at producing images of a hardcore band fronted by Danny Devito look alikes, it flat-out sucks at keeping people out of prison.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, attorney David Kenner delivered those closing statements on April 20. After Pras’ conviction, the rapper retained new lawyers who argued that Kenner’s generated remarks “appeared to be an admission of guilt.” Stupid computer. It was supposed to be an admission of innocence!

Earlier this year, a federal court found Pras guilty on 10 counts, including conspiracy and acting as an unregistered foreign agent. Allegedly cooked up by Jho Low, who Wikipedia describes as a “fugitive businessman,” the plan saw Pras aid in money laundering and bribery, making off with $4.5 billion from the Malaysian state investment fund, known as 1MDB, reports the AP.

Court filings argue that Kenner used EyeLevel.AI to craft the “frivolous defense” that Pras made contributions to the Obama campaign “in order to help Low get a photograph with President Obama” and not to influence policy. The filing notes that Low’s motivations for the scheme are “immaterial” and that Kenner “appears to have confused the conduit scheme with the lobbying scheme, which did allege Low’s policy aims.” Not to mention, Pras’ attorneys argue that the glorified word predictor didn’t even mention the “strongest and most obvious argument: that there was no evidence that Michel or anyone else acted at the ‘direction or control’ of the Chinese government.”

“The AI program failed Kenner, and Kenner failed Michel,” wrote Pras’ lawyer Peter Zeidenberg. “The closing argument was deficient, unhelpful, and a missed opportunity that prejudiced the defense.”

EyeLevel.AI had previously issued a press release on May 10 about how its “litigation assistance technology made history last week, becoming the first use of generative AI in a federal trial.” The company touted itself as an “absolute game changer” that could turn “hours or days of legal work into seconds.” Perhaps a more accurate description would be that it can turn hours or days of legal work into second trials.