Rhode Island Supreme Court Adopts AI Ethics Rules for Lawyers and Judges, Mandates AI Technology Competence

The Rhode Island Supreme Court amended Rule 1.1 of the state's professional conduct rules to require lawyers to keep current with AI's benefits and risks, and adopted interim guidelines governing generative AI use by attorneys and judges in legal practice. The rules place ultimate responsibility for accuracy of AI-generated work on the signing lawyer and clarify that client confidentiality obligations apply to data shared with AI systems. Rhode Island joins a growing set of states formalizing AI ethics standards for legal professionals, with the court explicitly warning that AI may hallucinate citations or legal precedents.