( August 29, 2024, 10:52 AM EDT) -- COLUMBUS, Ohio — A dialysis center says a health plan may be employing artificial intelligence in discovery without consultation or permission, telling the federal judge in Ohio overseeing its Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) case in a joint status report that the plan’s production of hundreds of thousands of documents is moving along at a “glacial” pace without any apparent intent to meet obligations in a stipulation. In their portion of the report, the health plan defendants say they disclosed their intent to use a “computer-assisted platform,” that even evidence identified by such tools requires validation and that perceived problems with production ignore those difficulties and the likelihood that deadlines will be met....