Here’s a trio of articles about the use of generative artificial intelligence in legal writing:
- State Bar of Wisconsin president and ethics expert, Dean Dietrich answers the question: “Are there ethical issues if a lawyer uses software such as ChatGPT to write a brief or a legal memo?” in the latest issue of the Wisconsin Lawyer.
Using AI to assist in the representation of a client is neither new nor an automatic violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct. Whether the use of AI violates ethics rules depends on how the AI is used and the oversight of the use…. The ability of ChatGPT and other chatbots to create written documents is a new development. There is potential for expanded use of AI in the practice of law but using AI without proper oversight from lawyers could open the door to legal malpractice claims and potentially lawyer discipline.
- Also in the latest Wisconsin Lawyer, John Fuller considers: “Is it Time to Adopt Generative AI in your Legal Writing?” Fuller is a spring 2023 UW Law grad.
Recent breakthroughs in generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology have made many attorneys question how the legal field will survive AI’s takeover. The solution is to embrace it… To better understand where AI currently stands and where it may be developed, this article divides AI-generated written work product into three levels, with each level having a different answer as to when you should start using AI in your workflows. Each of these levels also requires different levels of the human characteristics of judgment, empathy, creativity, and adaptability to create a quality work product.
- And, finally, a recent SSRN explores the question: “Is Artificial Intelligence Capable of Writing a Law Journal Article?” Author Roman Yankovskiy notes that a substantial portion of the article was generated by AI.
The experiment conducted has shown that artificial intelligence (in the implementation of GPT 4.0) is advanced enough to write an article suitable for publication in a legal journal. However, it requires a competent author who asks the AI the right questions and then checks the result. It’s better to choose a shallow topic, far from doctrinal nuances, because the current language models are severely limited when working with such questions. The article will undoubtedly need to be edited and the suggested sources will need to be verified.