A Stanford University "misinformation expert" has been accused of using artificial intelligence (AI) to craft testimony later used by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in a politically-charged case.

Jeff Hancock, a professor of communications and founder of the vaunted school's Social Media Lab, provided an expert declaration in a case involving a satirical conservative YouTuber named Christopher Kohls. The court case is about Minnesota's recent ban on political deepfakes, which the plaintiffs argue is an attack on free speech.

Hancock's testimony was submitted to the court by Ellison, who is arguing in favor of the law. Hancock is "well-known for his research on how people use deception with technology, from sending texts and emails to detecting fake online reviews," according to Stanford's website.

But the plaintiff's lawyers have asked the Minnesota federal judge hearing the case to dismiss the testimony, charging that Hancock cited a fake study.

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?

"[The] Declaration of Prof. Jeff Hancock cites a study that does not exist," lawyers argued in a recent 36-page memo. "No article by the title exists."

The "study" was called "The Influence of Deepfake Videos on Political Attitudes and Behavior" and was purportedly published in the Journal of Information Technology & Politics. The Nov. 16 filing notes that the journal is authentic, but had never published a study by that name.

"The publication exists, but the cited pages belong to unrelated articles," the lawyers argued. "Likely, the study was a ‘hallucination’ generated by an AI large language model like ChatGPT."

"Plaintiffs do not know how this hallucination wound up in Hancock’s declaration, but it calls the entire document into question, especially when much of the commentary contains no methodology or analytic logic whatsoever."

The document also calls out Ellison, arguing that "the conclusions that Ellison most relies on have no methodology behind them and consist entirely of expert say-so."

"Hancock could have cited a real study similar to the proposition in paragraph 21," the memo states. "But the existence of a fictional citation Hancock (or his assistants) didn’t even bother to click calls into question the quality and veracity of the entire declaration."

BIDEN EXECUTIVE ORDER FOR ‘WOKE’ ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CALLED ‘SOCIAL CANCER’

The memorandum also doubles down on the claim that the citation is bogus, noting the multiple searches lawyers went through to try to locate the study.

"The title of the alleged article, and even a snippet of it, does not appear on anywhere on the internet as indexed by Google and Bing, the most commonly-used search engines," the document states. "Searching Google Scholar, a specialized search engine for academic papers and patent publications, reveals no articles matching the description of the citation authored by ‘Hwang’ [the purported author] that includes the term ‘deepfake.’"

"Perhaps this was simply a copy-paste error? It’s not," the filing later flatly states. "The article doesn’t exist."

The attorneys concluded that, if the declaration were partially fabricated, it is entirely unreliable and should be dismissed from court consideration.

"The declaration of Prof. Hancock should be excluded in its entirety because at least some of it is based on fabricated material likely generated by an AI model, which calls into question its conclusory assertions," the document concluded. "The court may inquire into the source of the fabrication and additional action may be warranted."

Fox News Digital reached out to Ellison, Hancock and Stanford University for comment.

After a brief pause in communications with Voyager 1, NASA re-established a connection with the interstellar spacecraft located more than 15 billion miles away from Earth, using a frequency not used more than forty years.

Communication between NASA and Voyager 1 has been spotty at times. In fact, the spacecraft stopped sending readable data to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Nov. 14, 2023, and it was not until April that mission controllers began receiving commands once again.

More recently, the spacecraft turned off one of its two transmitters after what engineers suspected was due to Voyager 1’s fault protection system, which autonomously responds to onboard issues.

For instance, if the spacecraft uses too much power from its supply source, fault protection will kick in to conserve power by turning off non-essential systems, NASA explained.

VOYAGER 1 DETECTS ‘HUM’ WHILE IN INTERSTELLAR SPACE: REPORT

The space agency said the flight team sent a command to activate one of the spacecraft’s heaters on Oct. 16. The command takes nearly 23 hours to travel from Earth to the spacecraft, and then another 23 hours for the data to travel back.

Engineers suspected Voyager 1 should have had plenty of power to operate the heather, though the fault protection system was triggered.

On Oct. 18, the team learned about the issue, because the Deep Space Network was unable to detect Voyager 1’s signal. Communication between NASA and the spacecraft occurs on the X-band radio transmitter, named for the frequency it uses.

NASA PUBLISHES NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PHOTOS OF ‘RAVIOLI’ MOON ORBITING SATURN

The fault protection system lowered the rate the transmitter was able to send data back to NASA, engineers determined, therefore changing the X-band signal the Deep Space Network needed to listen for.

Once the signal was located, Voyager 1 appeared to be in a stable state and the team began investigating what happened.

But on Oct. 19, communication between the team and Voyager 1 stopped again, this time entirely.

The team believed Voyager 1’s fault protection system was triggered two more times and switched to a second radio transmitter called the S-band, which uses less power.

NASA RE-ESTABLISHES COMMUNICATION WITH VOYAGER 1 INTERSTELLAR SPACECRAFT THAT WENT SILENT FOR MONTHS

Voyager 1 had not used the S-band to communicate with Earth since 1981.

Engineers with the Deep Space Network were ultimately able to detect the spacecraft’s communication from the S-band. Rather than risk turning the X-band back on before finding out what caused the fault protection system to trigger, the team sent a command on Oct. 22 to confirm the S-band transmitter was working.

Now, the team is working to gather information to help them find out what happened so it can return Voyager 1 back to normal operations.

Voyager 1′s odyssey began in 1977 when the spacecraft and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched on a tour of the gas giant planets of the solar system.

After beaming back dazzling postcard views of Jupiter’s giant red spot and Saturn’s shimmering rings, Voyager 2 hopscotched to Uranus and Neptune. Meanwhile, Voyager 1 used Saturn as a gravitational slingshot to power itself past Pluto.

California’s unemployment insurance (UI) financing system is facing big deficits, requiring a full "redesign," according to a new report from the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO).

The system, meant to be self-sufficient, has fallen short of covering annual benefit costs, resulting in a projected $2 billion annual deficit over the next five years and an outstanding $20 billion federal loan balance.

"This outlook is unprecedented: although the state has, in the past, failed to build robust reserves during periods of economic growth, it has never before run persistent deficits during one of these periods," the LAO report, titled "Fixing Unemployment Insurance" and published Tuesday, stated. 

NEWSOM PROPOSES $25M FROM STATE LEGISLATURE TO ‘TRUMP PROOF’ CALIFORNIA

Independent analysts project that annual shortfalls will increase California's federal loan, costing taxpayers around $1 billion in interest each year. The system, which is funded by employer payments to the UI Trust Fund, hasn’t been updated since 1984 and "cannot keep up with inflation or provide the intended wage replacement of half of workers’ wages," according to the report.

The current employer tax structure discourages eligible unemployed workers from claiming benefits, while the state’s low taxable wage base hampers hiring of lower-wage workers, analysts found.

One suggestion researchers wrote to fix the gap is to increase the amount of wages taxed for unemployment benefits, raising it from $7,000 per worker to $46,800. Supporters of this change say it would bring in more money to fund the program. The report also recommends reworking how businesses are taxed for unemployment benefits to make the system simpler and encourage more hiring.

PROPOSITION 36 OVERWHELMINGLY PASSES IN CALIFORNIA, REVERSING SOME SOROS-BACKED SOFT-ON-CRIME POLICIES

To deal with the massive federal loan, the report suggests splitting the cost between employers and the state government, so that businesses aren’t stuck with all the debt.

"These are significant problems in isolation, let alone in combination," analysts wrote. "The significant changes proposed in this report are an honest reflection of these problems. However, whether or not the Legislature takes action, employers will soon pay more in UI taxes than they do today due to escalating charges under federal law."

Gareth Lacy, a spokesperson for the California Employment Development Department, which administers the state’s unemployment insurance program, called it "a thoughtful report" and noted officials "are reviewing it carefully."

"We agree the issue stretches back for decades and the pandemic compounded it," Lacy told Fox News Digital in a statement.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the state's UI system was hit hard with an overwhelming number of unemployment claims, resulting in the state borrowing roughly $20 billion from the federal government to cover insurance benefits, which the state still owes. 

"Not only will the state’s tax system fall short of repaying that loan, the balance is set to grow due to the ongoing gap between contributions and benefits," the report noted. "This will become a near-permanent feature of the state’s UI program and a major ongoing cost for state taxpayers."

An extreme heat wave off California’s coast seemed like an anomaly 10 years ago. But as the ocean warms, the catastrophe may be a glimpse of the future.

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© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

An extreme heat wave off California’s coast seemed like an anomaly 10 years ago. But as the ocean warms, the catastrophe may be a glimpse of the future.

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© Al Drago for The New York Times