A recent court discovery has turned 3M’s defense strategy for a major industrial disaster on its head after it emerged that an expert witness report was entirely generated by AI.
Lawsuits stemming from a 2020 Houston explosion have seen plaintiffs, family members, and defendants point fingers at each other with mixed results. However, within hours of a critical court disclosure, the company’s position underwent dramatic reversal.
The incident occurred six years ago when a massive explosion killed three people and injured dozens. Federal authorities determined the disaster was caused by a “degraded and poorly crimped rubber welding hose” that leaked flammable propylene gas throughout the building overnight. Massive industrial company 3M was hired to inspect and maintain gas detection systems at Watson Grinding, which allegedly failed—leading to lawsuits from victims.
Court records show 3M engaged Josh Autenrieth of KnightHawk Engineering to prepare a defense expert witness report. During testimony, a plaintiffs’ attorney discovered the document appeared AI-generated and found Autenrieth’s ChatGPT prompts were publicly accessible online.
“Well, do you realize, sir, that your chat right now is still publicly available?” the lawyer questioned in court.
Autenrieth responded: “I have no idea how it works.”
The deposition was paused for three hours to gather all prompts. This uncovered a vast trove of ChatGPT content still publicly accessible online—where Autenrieth had used the AI to draft his report almost entirely. The first prompt read: “I am being retained as a professional expert witness by 3M in defense of them in their lawsuits… I need to show that 3M met the standard of care and why.”
After uploading hundreds of documents, Autenrieth instructed the AI: “Show how 3M is 0% at fault for the explosion at Watson Grinding.”
The report draft concluded: “3M met the applicable standard of care” and was “0% responsible for the January 24, 2020, explosion.”
Attorney Will Moye stated Autenrieth “relied on AI not as an assistive device but exclusively used ChatGPT to form opinions and write his report.” Moye added that Autenrieth acknowledged his prompts were biased toward 3M to help the company win. Court records reveal Autenrieth billed his firm for at least 174 hours, totaling $82,650 at a rate of $475 per hour.
Nathan Knight, vice president of KnightHawk Engineering, claimed Autenrieth used AI only as a tool and stands behind his work, calling isolated trial excerpts “fake news” that does not reflect the full story.
Last week, a Harris County jury awarded $61.5 million to 24 plaintiffs in the case. Five victims received $38 million in June 2025 damages, while seven others were awarded $118 million in November 2025. 3M has not responded to inquiries about the matter.
