AI Tools Not Protected by Attorney-Client Privilege: US Federal Court Rules in Heppner Case

• A US federal court ruled that communications with AI tools are not protected under attorney-client privilege.
• The decision came in United States v. Heppner, where Judge Jed Rakoff examined interactions with a generative AI system.
• The defendant argued that documents generated with Anthropic’s AI tool Claude were part of legal preparation and privileged.
• Judge Rakoff rejected the claim, stating Claude is “not a licensed attorney” and communications were “not confidential.”
• The ruling classifies AI tools as external entities, akin to sharing information with “any other third party,” impacting confidentiality and trade secret protection.