Stephen Bacon Discusses Risks of AI-Generated Bid Protests on The Federal Drive Podcast
Stephen L. Bacon, a shareholder in Rogers Joseph O’Donnell’s Government Contracts Practice Group, warned that contractors relying on artificial intelligence to generate bid protests face growing risks of dismissal and potential sanctions during a recent interview on The Federal Drive with Terry Gerton on Federal News Network.
During the interview, Bacon said the Government Accountability Office has seen an increase in protests filed by parties not represented by counsel that appear to have been generated using large language models, with some filings containing fabricated legal authority.
“What we’re seeing in the decisions is that many of the protests that have been filed using AI contain hallucinations — case citations that don’t exist to actual cases that have been decided by GAO,” Bacon said. “The legal precedent that the protesters are relying on, in fact, doesn’t exist.”
Bacon, who wrote on the topic last year in his NCMA Counsel Commentary column, noted that inaccurate citations can lead to severe consequences, including dismissal of a protest even when the underlying legal arguments may otherwise have merit.
“If you happen to file a protest that contains fake citations, they reserve the right to dismiss your protest,” Bacon said. “Even if you have legally valid grounds to protest, GAO could dismiss the protest if it determines that you relied on fake citations.”
Bacon emphasized that GAO is not prohibiting the use of AI but is focused on preserving the integrity of the bid protest process. Contractors considering AI tools must verify citations, confirm procedural compliance, such as timeliness and standing and ensure that legal propositions are supported by actual GAO precedent.
“For anybody that is thinking about using AI to generate a protest, there needs to be some level of quality-checking,” Bacon said. “Otherwise, GAO could just be flooded with protests that have no merit and that have lots of inaccuracies in them.”
Listen to or read Bacon’s full Federal Drive interview here.