Cognitive Biases in The Age of AI

RSVP here on Meetup or register at https://www.orangecountyai.com/events/e90677f6419c0cc3 — both work for this event.

In 2023 a New York attorney filed a federal brief citing six court decisions — names, docket numbers, judges, quoted passages. None of them existed. ChatGPT had invented all six.

Here's the part that matters. He went back to ChatGPT and asked, "Are these cases real?" It said yes. He filed anyway. Judge Castel called one of the fabricated legal analyses "gibberish." $5,000 in sanctions.

He didn't ask whether they were fake. He asked for reassurance. And he got it.

That's not a story about a careless lawyer, or a bad model. It's a story about a loop. Your assumption shapes your prompt. The model hands it back with confidence and formatting. You walk away more certain than you started. Chatbots are trained on human preference data, and humans reward agreement — so the model doesn't just fail to correct your bias. It amplifies it.

Kai Cheng walks through 14 cognitive biases, chosen on exactly one criterion: how easily they bite when you're talking to an AI.

Three numbers to sit with

What we'll cover

Five places the human-AI loop breaks:

• 🪞 You contaminate the input

• 🎩 You over-trust the output

• 🧵 You mismanage the session

• 📊 You misjudge the tool

• 🪪 You misjudge yourself

Every cluster comes with one real example and one fix you can use tomorrow.

Who should come

Anyone who uses ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini as part of their real work. Founders, operators, marketers, engineers, lawyers, analysts. No technical background needed. If you have ever pushed back on an AI and watched it fold instantly, this talk is about you.

Your speaker

Kai Cheng last took the OCAI stage for AI Data Foundations, making the case that your agent is only as good as the data you collect and curate around it. This time the argument turns inward: the output is only as good as the brain writing the prompt.

About Orange County AI

Orange County AI is the largest AI community in Orange County. We connect founders, operators, and technologists through events, education, and hands-on collaboration.

The Ticket 500 is Don DiCostanzo's invite-only entrepreneur space in Newport Beach. RSVP is free, but the room is small — grab a seat early.

All of this applies to the presenter. And to the AI that helped build the talk.