Federal Court Rules AI Chatbot Conversations Not Protected by Attorney-Client Privilege
By
John Schroyer
Crisp on the outside, thoughtful on the inside. A keeper.
Summary
A federal court ruling has determined that communications with AI chatbots like Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini are not protected by attorney-client privilege. The case involves a white collar criminal defendant in New York who tried to shield his conversations with Claude about legal defense strategy from federal prosecutors. The ruling serves as a warning to business owners and executives that discussing legal problems with AI lacks the confidentiality protections afforded to human attorneys.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledIt seems obvious that you shouldn't rely on artificial intelligence for legal advice, particularly if something important, like your freedom
A new federal court ruling makes clear that business owners and executives can't expect confidentiality for legal discussions with AI, as they can with human attorneys.
Anthropic's Claude, OpenAI's ChatGPT and Alphabet's Gemini may be great for helping with research or creating spreadsheets, but one thing they decidedly are not is your attorney.
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US v. Heppner (S.D.N.Y. 2026) no attorney-client privilege for AI chats [pdf]
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