3M Expert Witness Used ChatGPT in Houston Explosion Lawsuit
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- Expert witness for 3M used ChatGPT to write significant portions of his expert report in a lawsuit over a 2020 explosion at Houston's Watson Grinding facility that killed three people and destroyed roughly 200 homes.
- The expert's ChatGPT prompts were exposed publicly through court transcripts, deposition documents, and discovery records, showing he asked the AI to "create an exceptional expert witness report defending the standard of care at 3M" and "show how 3M is 0% at fault for the explosion at Watson Grinding."
- The 2020 Watson Grinding explosion was caused by a "degraded and poorly crimped rubber welding hose" that leaked flammable gas, according to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.
- Dozens of homeowners have sued 3M and Watson Grinding, alleging 3M didn't properly service the facility's gas detection system and made other errors that contributed to the explosion, with hundreds of millions of dollars in total liability at stake.
- The case shows AI use has expanded into expert witness testimony — beyond earlier instances of AI-generated legal briefings, hallucinated cases, and adversarial "prompt injections" — and that the underlying prompts can be discoverable and embarrassing in court.
Why it matters: For the plaintiffs suing 3M and Watson Grinding over an explosion that killed three and destroyed roughly 200 homes, the exposed prompts could undercut 3M's hired expert's credibility in litigation where hundreds of millions of dollars in liability are at stake. The episode also establishes that the prompts used to generate expert testimony are discoverable, raising the stakes for any attorney tempted to lean on AI in high-stakes cases.
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