Mark Richards, 59, of Wisconsin, United States is a defense attorney for Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, of Antioch, Illinois, USA. During the murder trial of the latter on November 10, 2021, the lawyer made an incorrect claim about the technology company Apple, which is based in Cupertino, California, USA.

Richards does not know the difference between logarithms and algorithms. This became evident when he objected to assistant district attorney Thomas Binger‘s plan to present footage showing Rittenhouse shooting Joseph D. Rosenbaum in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

“iPads, which are made by Apple, have artificial intelligence in them that allow things to be viewed through three dimensions and logarithms and it uses artificial intelligence, or their logarithms, to create what they believe is happening so this isn’t actually enhanced video,” Richards said. “This is Apple’s iPad programming creating what it thinks is there, not what necessarily is there.”

To scale the image, pinch-to-zoom on all devices may use algorithms. What it does not do is to change the content itself. 

Richards does not know that. Neither does the judge, who happens to be the longest serving circuit judge in Wisconsin.

Judge Bruce E. Schroeder, 75, said it was up to the prosecution to prove that Richards’ claim was false. Unfortunately, prosecutors could not find an expert during the 20-minute recess that the judge suggested.

Eventually, the jury watched the footage of Rittenhouse shooting Rosenbaum on a Windows device connected to a large television screen. The video was not zoomed and the images did not fill the entire screen.

On August 25, 2020, Rittenhouse shot Rosenbaum, Anthony M. Huber and Gaige Paul Grosskreutz in Kenosha amid a Black Lives Matter demonstration where protesters were demanding justice for Jacob Blake. Grosskreutz survived while both Rosenbaum and Huber died.

Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976. It went on to become the world’s largest technology company by revenue and it has been the world’s valuable company since January 2021.

On April 3, 2010, Apple released the first iPad. On September 24, 2021, the ninth-generation iPad and the fourth-generation iPad Air, the most recent iPad models, were released.