Can Your Chatbot Logs Be Used Against You in Court? (news.northeastern.edu)

As people increasingly consult large language models for advice and research, questions are mounting about whether those chat logs can be used as evidence in court. Mark Esposito, an AI-governance expert, argues that while chatbot interactions are “permanent by design” and therefore theoretically discoverable, we currently lack the legal and procedural framework to treat them like traditional evidence. Stored exchanges raise discovery headaches (opposing counsel could demand vast, irrelevant logs), run afoul of data-protection rules by overcollecting information, and complicate notions of relevance and privacy. Technically and legally the bigger barriers are attribution, explainability and auditability: most models are black boxes, so courts would struggle to determine who’s responsible for a generated argument (user, developer or system) or to verify how an output was produced. Researchers are running legal-clinic pilots to test protocols, but Esposito says true accountability will require clearer rules about data location, retention, and use—issues that policymakers (notably in recent U.S. administrations) are only beginning to prioritize. For now, chatbot logs are a potential evidentiary source in principle, but significant technical, procedural and privacy hurdles must be resolved before they become routine in court.