ZeroHour

Search: “Watson Grinding”

4 stories

‘Show How 3M Is 0% at Fault:’ Expert Witness Used ChatGPT to Write Report Defending Company in Deadly Explosion Lawsuit

An expert witness hired by 3M used ChatGPT to write portions of his report in a fatal Houston explosion lawsuit, with prompts discoverable.

An expert witness retained by 3M in litigation over the 2020 Watson Grinding explosion in Houston, which killed three people and destroyed roughly 200 homes, used ChatGPT to draft significant portions of his expert report. Discovery records revealed prompts asking ChatGPT to 'show how 3M is 0% at fault' and to defend 3M's standard of care. The case demonstrates that AI prompts used to produce expert testimony can be discoverable during litigation, with hundreds of millions of dollars in liability at stake in the ongoing lawsuits.

404 Media · 29d agoAI safety & security

What the 3M ChatGPT case reveals about AI governance

3M litigation shows ChatGPT prompts can become discoverable evidence, forcing enterprises to govern AI conversation records.

In the Watson Grinding explosion litigation, an engineering expert retained by 3M had used ChatGPT, and a surfaced prompt asked the system to 'show how 3M is 0% at fault'; after an off-record deposition demand, more than 350 pages of previously unproduced ChatGPT material were provided. The author argues AI interaction histories are becoming part of decision records and discovery material, a trend the American Bar Association has already examined. Enterprises are urged to manage retention, ownership, sharing, and deletion of AI conversation logs across tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, and Gemini.

CSO Online · 2d agoPolicy & legal