Page 9 - May June 2023 CBA Report

ourselves at the firm. When procuring any AI, you need to think through how to bring it into your systems, how to train it, and who owns the data. Addi- tionally, when you bring in a chatbot or a RPA [robotic process automation] tool, it needs to access other third-party software in your environment. So what happens when one program talks to another in a similar manner as to how humans interact with the program? What does that mean? Are you allowed to do that under your contract? How much does it cost? That dynamic creates lots of inter- esting questions.
What are some of the under- appreciated concerns with using AI
TS: GPT is [working on] hallucinations. [Hallucinations are confident answers generated by AI that has no grounding in any of its training data. These are also referred to as delusions or confabulations.] Sometimes it gives you the right answers, sometimes it gives you completely whacky answers. Almost more dangerous for lawyers is sometimes it gives you slightly wrong answers. It’s pretty close to right, and if you read through quickly, you’d say, ‘Yeah, that looks good.’
One thing it’s good at doing is summarizing things for you. You can say summarize this website for me, and it does a pretty good job. The IncuBaker team did an experiment where it had ChatGPT summarize an ABA article on AI impacting the legal community. The summary was pretty close, but there were things it conflated or got wrong. For one, the ChatGPT summary said firms were seeking to move into law-margin prac- tices — the article didn’t say that, but it did mention potential impacts on lower margin practice areas. those close-but- not-quite problems would be a big issue in a field where we’ve got to be precise and accurate.
The latest version of ChatGPT, ChatGPT-4, passed the bar exam by a “significant” margin. Will AI attorneys be a reality one day?
TS: It’s not surprising when you under- stand what ChatGPT is — the multiple choice of the bar exam is a lot of memo- rization. A computer is going to do that way better than most humans. I think what gets conflated is that a human sat down and took the test, and a computer “sat down” and took the test - they both passed, so they’re now equivalent. That’s missing a lot of the point. ChatGPT is much more narrow in what it can do. It’s really good at answering a single ques- tion, or even a more complex question, but putting everything together in context? Think of what clients value — they don’t just ask one question and get one answer. Our value is built on years of experience with context and subtext, and goes beyond just the most recent question.
What are lawyers themselves thinking about the potential use of AI?
TS: The answer is all over the board. There are certainly lawyers who are concerned about it. Others are really
excited like the IncuBaker team — their job is to find these cool technologies and implement them. It’s an exciting thing for people, certainly for younger attorneys, to think about how they can influence where the practice of law goes in the near future. Having a brand-new technology always creates some opportunities for younger associates to be the ones learning it.
I think most attorneys are probably waiting to see. I’ve been practicing 18 years, right after Blackberries came out. There’s been so much technology evolu- tion over the last ten years in what we do in the practice of law, this just seems to be the next step. It will be interesting to see how it goes, but it’s going to be an itera- tive practice for the reasons we’ve talked about. There are currently too many mistakes in what’s publicly out there, so we have to figure out the right private tools or develop our own. We need to get very comfortable
Shokoohe is the director of communications for the CBA.
Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza Hotel | Cincinnati, OH
THE INTERSECTION OF RACE IN THE CRIMINAL LEGAL SYSTEM
Race affects what happens in every criminal case, beginning with the initial police encounter on the street and the media attention, to pre-trial litigation, and throughout a trial. This program is designed to help criminal practitioners identify and confront issues of racial bias in our courts, in the media, within the law enforcement community, by prosecutors, and yes, even within the defense team. Attendees will hear from a variety of trial lawyers, top academics, civil rights lawyers and activists, and experts who will offer their personal perspectives, relevant data,
NACDL's 6th Annual Seminar
RACE MATTERS VI:
strategies, and ideas on why race matters in every criminal case.
NACDL.org/RaceMatters
May 10-12, 2023
NACDL.org/RaceMatters
#NACDLRaceMatters
Courtesy of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
Courtesy of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
THE REPORT | May/June 2023 | CincyBar.org
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