Artificial Intelligence is here to stay

When experimenting with different products, think outside the box. Law firms are now building their own AI models to evaluate cases and assess damages. They are also using it to assist with marketing and firm branding, eliminating the need to outsource these types of services.

Like any new technology you need to understand the risks. For starters, you need to understand whether the platform that you are uploading data onto is secure. Applications like ChatGPT clearly state that the information you provide is not secure and thus, not confidential. If you disclose attorney client communications or upload confidential deposition transcripts for summarizing, you risk running afoul of CRPC 1.6 which prevents attorneys from revealing confidential information. You also need to understand how the AI data is sourced. ChatGPT uses web scraping to gather data from various sources on the Internet. Web scraping involves extracting data from websites by using automated tools. Some of the sources it uses are books, news articles, and various websites. Obviously, some of this material contains misinformation which leads to “hallucinations.” Subscribing to legal specific AI platforms such as CoCounsel, EsquireTek, or Lexis+AI are going to be safer because they only pull information from trusted databases that the specific companies control.

Lastly, regardless of whether you are a sole practitioner or the managing partner of a multi member law firm, you need to create a policy on how and when AI can be used. This will help to ensure consistency and control over which platforms get utilized.

Marshall R. Cole is a partner and Certified specialist at Nemecek & Cole.