A court fined lawyers for hiding commands to AI in a filing

WHAT HAPPENED

White text on white paper, written for the court's AI

A Brazilian labor court found hidden text in a filing, in white font on a white background. It told the AI to respond superficially and not challenge the documents. The court censured and fined the two law firms involved.

THE NUMBER

10%

Fine, as a share of the claim's value

The claim was R$842,000, so the fine is about $16,000.

THE REAL PROBLEM IN COMPANIES

What I see in companies that let AI read outside documents

1. 01Contracts, resumes and invoices come from outside and go straight into the AI
2. 02Nobody checks whether a document contains instructions aimed at the model
3. 03The AI's output is treated as a decision, not as a draft to be reviewed

WHERE THIS BREAKS IN PRACTICE

The human could not see it. The AI could.

The text was invisible to anyone reading normally. It only showed up when the font color was changed. In this case the court's system flagged it and blocked the processing. That is a guardrail working. Many company pipelines have none.

MY TAKE

Measure instead of assuming.

Don't assume the AI only reads content. In practice, anything in a document can act as an instruction. Before the output drives a decision, you need input controls, a check on what comes in, and a human reviewing what goes out.