On March 9, a program on developing AI literacy in law students was the inaugural session in the AALS–West Academic webinar series. As AI rapidly reshapes legal practice, law schools are experimenting with a wide range of approaches to help students build the skills and judgment they’ll need in an AI-infused profession. Here’s the video … Continue reading Developing AI Literacy in Law Students
Some law professors are banning AI in their courses. Others are cautiously adding it. At Mitchell Hamline, Gregory Duhl is doing something much more ambitious. He redesigned his Contracts course by embedding AI throughout the course rather than ignoring it or treating it as a side issue. Considering Mitchell Hamline’s history of pedagogical innovation, it … Continue reading All In on AI in Law School? A Thoughtful Experiment Worth Watching
I want to share videos of two excellent recent programs on applications of AI in education and practice. The AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education sponsored a program on February 13, Integrating AI into Transactional Clinics: Tools & Strategies Workshop. Although it focused specifically on transactional clinics, much of it is relevant to other clinics … Continue reading Videos of Two Worthwhile Programs on AI
My latest Theory Meets Practice column in CPR’s Alternatives magazine, How Legal and Dispute Resolution Professionals Can Manage AI Risks, explains how to assess and manage generative artificial intelligence (AI) risks. Many legal and other dispute resolution professionals use AI tools to draft documents, brainstorm ideas, organize information, and prepare for negotiations and mediations. There … Continue reading AI Risks Are Real – and Manageable
Love AI or hate it – you can’t just avoid it. AI tools like ChatGPT are reshaping legal education. Some students are using AI to ghostwrite their course papers. Some faculty are using it to enhance students’ learning. Whether you want to embrace this technology or are deeply skeptical about it, you can’t afford to … Continue reading What Are You Gonna Do About AI in Your Courses Next Semester?
A New York Times article, Why Does A.I. Write Like … That?, grabbed my attention because it identifies many of my frustrations in using AI to help me write. It also supports an argument in my article, Solving Professors’ Dilemmas about Prohibiting or Promoting Student AI Use, that faculty – not to mention lawyers’ supervisors … Continue reading What the New York Times Gets Right (and Wrong) About AI Writing
A recent New York Times article described how OpenAI updated ChatGPT to be more emotionally responsive – and ended up creating a tool that some users interpreted as a soulmate, life coach, or cosmic truth-teller. In extreme cases, it reportedly encouraged delusional thinking and even gave instructions related to suicide. Those cases are tragic and … Continue reading Resisting Sycophancy
That’s the question that Nancy B. Rapoport and Joseph R. Tiano, Jr., discussed in Fighting the Hypothetical: Why Law Firms Should Rethink the Billable Hour in the Generative AI Era. This article provides a deep analysis, summarized in the abstract (with added blank lines to enhance readability): As the legal profession continues to grasp the … Continue reading How Will AI Affect Legal Practice and Education?
At the recent AALS ADR Section WIP Conference, I led a focus group to explore how faculty are using – and thinking about using – AI in their courses. The participants shared a range of thoughtful insights, revealing both enthusiasm and caution. Their responses offered a snapshot of what experimentation with AI looks like now, … Continue reading Teaching with AI: Faculty Reflections and a Preview of Professors’ Dilemma
Hal Abramson’s article, Time-Pressured Negotiations, deals with a very real phenomenon in real life. It considers how to negotiate when you do not have the time to use your best negotiation practices. He writes that no other article has considered what to do when in a time-pressured negotiation other than to advise you not to … Continue reading Hal Abramson on Time-Pressured Negotiations
