Earlier this year, a University of Pennsylvania criminologist spent a weekend trying to get ChatGPT to confess to something it hadn’t done. He wasn’t trying to prove AI is dangerous — he was testing a theory about police interrogation. Using tactics adapted from the Reid technique, the interrogation method still taught to police departments across the country, he bargained with the chatbot, threatened it, and eventually lied to it, claiming an “investigation” had found a technical flaw that made it responsible for something it never did.

By the end of the weekend, the chatbot signed a confession.

That result unsettled the researchers who study this for a living, and for good reason. A chatbot has no fear, no fatigue, no thirty-year sentence hanging over it, and nothing to lose. If those tactics can still talk software into admitting to something it didn’t do, it’s worth asking what they can do to a frightened, exhausted human being sitting alone in an interrogation room.

The honest answer, backed by decades of research and hundreds of documented cases, is: quite a lot.

How Interrogations Are Designed to Produce a Confession

Most people assume police interrogations are a search for the truth. In practice, the most widely used interrogation method in the country is built to do something different: extract an admission from a person police have already decided is guilty.

Under this approach, an investigator confronts the suspect with a presumption of guilt, discourages denials, and shifts the conversation toward “why” the person committed the act rather than “whether” they did. Investigators are trained — and legally permitted — to lie about the evidence against a suspect: claiming there’s DNA at the scene, a witness who saw everything, or a co-defendant who already talked. None of it has to be true. Courts have upheld the practice for decades.

For a guilty person, this pressure can produce a genuine confession. For an innocent person, it can produce a false one — and the two can sound identical on paper.

Why Innocent People Confess

False confessions generally happen one of two ways. In a compliant false confession, an innocent person knows they didn’t do it but says what interrogators want to hear anyway, usually to end an exhausting, hours-long ordeal, often on the belief that the truth will eventually come out. In an internalized false confession, something more troubling happens: the person actually starts to doubt their own memory. When investigators insist, over and over, that the evidence proves guilt, some people — especially after sleep deprivation or hours of psychological pressure — begin to question whether they simply don’t remember doing it.

The numbers are sobering. Of the hundreds of people exonerated by DNA evidence since the late 1980s, roughly three in ten had falsely confessed. Certain groups are especially vulnerable: minors, who are two to three times more likely to falsely confess than adults; people with intellectual disabilities or mental illness, who make up a disproportionate share of documented false confessions; and anyone unfamiliar with the legal system or intimidated by authority.

And once a confession exists, it’s remarkably hard to undo. Juries tend to believe confessions even when told they were coerced, because most people can’t imagine confessing to something they didn’t do. A confession can also shape everything downstream — it can discourage police from pursuing other leads, color how forensic evidence gets interpreted, and push a defense attorney toward a plea deal rather than a fight.

What Rights You Actually Have

This is the part that matters most if you’re ever contacted by police, whether as a witness, a “person of interest,” or a named suspect.

You have the right to remain silent, and that right doesn’t expire after you’ve already started talking. You can invoke it at any point, even mid-sentence, even after you’ve answered some questions. You have the right to an attorney, and you have the right to have that attorney present before you answer anything further. Neither right requires you to be under arrest — you can invoke both the moment an officer starts asking questions you don’t want to answer.

In practice, this means:

Politely but clearly stating that you are invoking your right to remain silent and want to speak with an attorney is enough. You don’t need to explain why, argue your innocence, or try to talk your way out of the room — that instinct is exactly what interrogation tactics are built to exploit. Ambiguous statements like “maybe I should talk to someone” have been found insufficient in some cases; be direct: “I am invoking my right to remain silent. I want a lawyer.”

Agreeing to “just clear a few things up” is one of the most common ways people talk themselves into trouble. There is no version of an interrogation where saying less hurts you and saying more helps you, no matter how convinced you are of your own innocence.

If a Confession Has Already Been Used Against You

If you or a family member gave a statement to police and are now facing charges, or were convicted, based partly or entirely on that statement, it is not too late to act. An experienced defense attorney can examine how the statement was obtained — how long the questioning lasted, whether Miranda warnings were properly given and honored, whether the person’s age, disability, or language barriers were accounted for, and whether investigators used tactics known to produce false admissions. Depending on the circumstances, these facts can support a motion to suppress the statement before trial, a stronger cross-examination of the interrogating officers, or, after conviction, a post-conviction appeal or writ raising ineffective assistance of counsel or newly available evidence.

A conviction built on a confession is not the end of the road. It’s a starting point for a careful legal review.

We’re Here to Help

If you or someone you love is being questioned by police, or is already facing charges connected to a statement given during an interrogation, the time to get legal advice is now — not after you’ve signed something. Contact our office for a confidential consultation.