AI clog: 200-page complaints and case law from Canada
People now use chatbots to write their council complaints. A human at the council still has to answer them.
People use chatbots to write complaints to UK councils. Before chatbots, a council complaint averaged about two pages. Deborah Evans of Lawyers in Local Government told the Guardian most are now 10 times longer, and the worst she knows of is about 200 pages. The report calls it "AI clog."
The chatbots cite case law from the wrong country, "not necessarily tied to the jurisdictional boundaries in which you operate," Evans says. Councils may get "some great case law from Canada."
The UK information regulator says humans must answer AI-drafted requests. Employee relations expert Jim Moore says many complaints are "worded to sound intimidating but forget to set out what solution the complainant wants."
Sources: The Guardian (Nov 8, 2026).
- The Guardian, "'AI clog': UK public bodies battle onslaught of chatbot-generated complaints" (Nov 8, 2026): the "AI clog" label, the two-pages-to-10-times-longer and 200-page figures and the case law from Canada (Deborah Evans), the Moore quote, and the ICO caution that AI-looking requests with inaccuracies still need human answers. theguardian.com
Current as of Nov 9, 2026, the day after the Guardian story. The image is an AI-generated illustration. Not affiliated with anyone.