Professional advice: do not send your AI avatar to testify for you before the judge.
In general terms, it is not considered a good idea to represent yourself in a trial. However, something worse could be saying that you will defend yourself and then entrusting the task to an AI avatar to show off the capabilities of your commercial venture. This seems to have been the idea of AI entrepreneur Jerome Dewald, as reported by , which the judge did not appreciate at all.
The situation of Dewald seems to have been as follows: Dewald is the defendant in a dispute with the insurance firm MassMutual Metro New York, and he was supposed to present his argument in court on March 26, 2025. He had been diagnosed with throat cancer 25 years ago and, according to The Register, he still suffers from the consequences, making it difficult for him to speak for long periods of time. That’s why he asked the court for permission to submit a video presenting his statement. It was a reasonable request, which seems to have been accepted by the court.
But what the judges did not approve of was the type of video Dewald sent. It wasn’t him giving his statement, but a generic person whom the judges had never seen before. A few seconds into the video statement, Associate Judge Sallie Manzanet-Daniels interrupted to ask, “Is that the defendant’s attorney?” At that moment, Dewald revealed that the person making the statement was not even a real person but rather an AI-generated video. “He is not a real person,” he told the court.
### “A good-looking guy”
It was then that Judge Manzanet-Daniels reprimanded him: “It would have been good to know that when you submitted your request. You didn’t tell us, sir,” she said, pointing out that Dewald had indeed spoken for a long time and had had previous conversations with the court office without any complaints. “I don’t like being deceived. So, either you suffer from a condition that prevents you from speaking, or you don’t have that problem,” she said.
It would be a good time to mention that Dewald heads an AI startup called that helps people represent themselves in legal matters using AI tools, a fact that the judge seemed to be aware of because she said, “You will not use this court to promote your business, sir.”
To be fair to Dewald, it doesn’t seem like this avatar was created with his platform, which he told does not operate due to lack of funds for almost a year. His AI representative called “Jim” was created using a free trial of an AI service called. And although he tried to create an AI version of himself to speak in court, he failed to do so, so he told The Register that he “chose one of the pre-determined AI figures, a big, good-looking guy.”
Despite all, as he seemed to be promoting his business, and because of the unexpected appearance of the AI avatar, Dewald received a reprimand from the judge. He then chose to present his argument personally and has accepted the fact that he should have informed that he intended to use AI to defend himself. As a result, he learned his lesson.
