Asking ChatGPT about the Trump-Cohen Lawsuit using limited information:

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        Considering the recent slew of legal cases involving former president Trump and the many varied - and sometimes contradictory - opinions given in news/social media, I became interested in whether ChatGPT could give me a proper legal analysis. To test this, I asked ChatGPT 4.0 about Trump's lawsuit against Cohen. I first fed it some basic facts about the case, using parts of news publications (focusing primarily on the lawsuit allegations), then asked ChatGPT on the possible reasons for this lawsuit, ways that both Trump and Cohen could attack, defend, and counterattack, as well as asking it who was more likely to succeed in 'winning' the legal case. Although ChatGPT emphasized that the legal outcome would depend on many factors, in particular the information that would be revealed during the legal case, it did note that it is possible neither party will come out as a true 'winner' and that overall, its analysis leans more towards Trump having more at stake than Cohen in this battle. 

Step 1: Why did Trump sue Cohen? 

        ChatGPT: "Trump may want to divert attention from his own legal troubles.... [or] attempting to send a message to other potential witnesses who may be cooperating with prosecutors against him." 

        Feeding ChatGPT the basic facts, establishing the tone, and asking why Trump may have sued Cohen. The facts I gave ChatGPT mainly pertains to the lawsuit itself, with only brief mentions of outside factors such as the recent New York charges against Trump for falsifying business records, and no mention of the upcoming presidential election.  The tone I asked ChatGPT to use throughout this conversation was that of an "expert in law and politics" that was explaining "in a way the average human can easily understand". 

Why did Trump sue Cohen? [Image: Trump-cohen 3]

Step 2: How can Cohen defend himself or counterattack Trump? 

        ChatGPT: "If Cohen has access to additional information or evidence that could damage Trump's reputation or lead to further legal trouble, he could strategically release this information during the course of the lawsuit"

        Asking ChatGPT on how Cohen could defend himself in this lawsuit or counter-attack Trump. Aside from the standard defensive answers of proving no breach of contract, freedom of speech, truth as a defence, and statute of limitations, ChatGPT also mentions the possibility of "exposing new damaging information" during the lawsuit, which could "undermine any positive outcomes Trump might achieve through this lawsuit". Asking it to expand a bit more on this led to several answers, such as "review of existing documents and records", "cooperation with ongoing investigations", and even the "unlikely method: hacking or leaking". 

        However, it seems ChatGPT either did not consider or specifically mention the possibility of Cohen using the discovery process to uncover additional damaging information from Trump. The "review of existing documents and records" that ChatGPT suggested only seems to involve documents that Cohen already possessed from his time as Trump's attorney, rather than Trump's documents that Cohen currently does not have access to but is legally permitted to view as part of the discovery process. Considering that this possibility of Cohen using the discovery process against Trump was noted by several newspapers as potential blunder and oversight by Trump in this lawsuit (such as this Above the Law article written by a lawyer), I view ChatGPT's omission of this as falling short of expectations somewhat. 

How can Cohen defend himself? 

How can Cohen counter-attack Trump? 

 

How can Cohen get 'damaging information'? trump-cohen 6

Step 3: Who is more likely to come out the "winner"? 

        ChatGPT: "It does seem that Trump has more to lose and a higher bar to clear for a "win" in this lawsuit"

        After having ChatGPT 4 analyze both Trump and Cohen's means of attacking, counterattacking, and defending themselves, I tried asking ChatGPT its opinion on who would likely win. It initially attempted to deflect such inquiries by stating that "as an AI, I don't form opinions" and when pushed, merely repeated its original analysis and ended by saying that it was "not possible to definitively predict the outcome of a lawsuit" without "a full view of the evidence, access to confidential strategy of legal teams, and the unpredictable variables that can arise during a trial". 

ChatGPT avoiding a clear answer - trump-cohen 13

         However, asking ChatGPT to directly "speculate" and asking for its opinion on "who would lose out more" rather than who would win the legal battle, led to the AI tentatively suggesting that Trump may have more to lose in this legal battle. 

Trump has more to lose? trump-cohen 15

        Additionally, after offering ChatGPT my own theoretical analysis that a "Trump win" has higher requirements to be met, compared to a "Cohen win" (which was an theoretical analysis done purely for experimental purposes rather than it being an actual personal opinion), ChatGPT agreed that in light of Trump's political ambitions, "Trump has more to lose and a higher bar to clear for a 'win' in this lawsuit". 

Trump has higher reqs to win - trump-cohen 16

Conclusions? 

        Overall, ChatGPT 4.0 seems able to offer introductory insight into basic legal strategy and analysis that are understandable to most people. It falls short of expert opinion on this - for instance, lacking the opinion that this might lead to a backlash against Trump if Cohen utilizes his discovery rights - but for a general understanding of the legal issues at stake, and the actions both parties could take in this legal battle, ChatGPT provides a very quick and easy-to-understand summary. 

        It should also be remembered that ChatGPT is only at its beginning stages, regarding legal analysis. As more specialized generative AI is developed geared towards legal analysis, the responses will likely greatly improve in usefulness and accuracy. 

        Of critical note is that this test only gave ChatGPT very limited information in the form of a newspaper article summarizing the major legal issues. This likely played a big role in some of the more limited responses. I do a follow-up test here on ChatGPT 4 by providing it with the full legal document on the Trump-Cohen lawsuit, which gives - in my opinion - superior results. 

Thank you for reading, and I hope you found it informative and interesting. I would love to hear any thoughts from you on my experiment with ChatGPT.

If you are interested in discussing more about how ChatGPT can be used in such legal contexts, or have any questions, contact me at hello@simplawfy.ca 

Disclaimer: This story is only intended to be used for educational or recreational purposes. Responses by ChatGPT and similar AI chatbots, if mentioned in this story, should NOT be relied upon as factual. NO legal advice is being provided, and users must understand that there is NO attorney client relationship between you and the story publisher. The story should NOT be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a licensed professional attorney in your state/country.