It is unsurprising that, in a profession already known for risk aversion, the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been met with some resistance and calls for caution. In perhaps the most famous tale, a lawyer in New York made headlines last year for filing a brief replete with citations to fictitious cases, the unfortunate result of having posed legal research questions to ChatGPT and then inappropriately taking its answers at face value. Stories like this have led to a flurry of ongoing commentary alerting lawyers to the limits of AI.
Though these warnings are not without some merit, it is now clear that we are on the cusp of a new era where the use of AI will become a standard part of the everyday practice of law. The last several months have seen a host of AI products designed for lawyers enter the market, and these products promise to improve the practice of law by increasing speed and efficiency in a variety of ways. In contrast to products intended for the general public, such as ChatGPT, these new programs are specially trained on legal databases and designed to be used by lawyers for streamlining aspects of practice.
