Australian court case alleges ChatGPT was used to scrape restricted data

Summary

A Sydney man, Christopher John Duff, has pleaded not guilty to four charges of accessing restricted computer data after a breach involving a New South Wales courts website. Prosecutors allege that he used ChatGPT to create Python scraper scripts that bypassed the registry’s normal navigation and bulk-downloaded documents between January and March 2025. Police say 8,769 restricted documents were accessed, although the prosecution must still prove that Duff knew the access was unauthorised. The case also concerns conversations in which he allegedly asked ChatGPT for legal advice, sought information about what police might do, and requested coaching about responding to questioning. Prosecutors intend to use those conversations, along with forensic expert evidence, to support both the alleged conduct and its motive; the prosecutor said this may be among Australia’s first cases involving generative AI evidence of this kind. Defence counsel argued that the volume of proposed evidence, estimated at more than 10,000 pages, makes the hearing difficult to complete, and said the conversations may instead show a later realisation about whether the conduct was illegal. The hearing was adjourned for two weeks, while Duff remains on bail under conditions including surrendering his passport and using only a basic phone.