Bench & Bar July/August 2025

FIRST, COMPREHENSIVE EDUCA TION ON AI'S ETHICAL USE. This is already in place, as Past President Fletcher Schrock created the KBA’s Artificial Intel ligence Task Force. This group is up and running and expanding the scope of its offerings. As a member of that task force, I hope to offer my assistance to help it con tinue to show excellent leadership in the AI space. Our AI Task Force has delivered out standing CLE presentations and published Ethics Opinion KBA E-457, which provides crucial guidance for practitioners. We will expand these educational efforts, focusing on practical applications and ethical bound aries that protect both clients and the legal system. The task force plans an expansive CLE offering in early 2026. SECOND, ONGOING INTELLIGENCE ON AI DEVELOPMENTS. The technol ogy landscape shifts monthly, not yearly. We will establish regular briefings on new AI capabilities, tools, and their implications for legal practice. This is not merely about keeping current—it's about anticipating changes that could affect our profession's fundamental structure. The KBA can be the forward observer for Kentucky lawyers.

My son, who is a software engineer with Google, argues that human-AI collabo ration will always outperform AI alone. He does not see AI supplanting Natural Intelligence. This offers a more nuanced view: rather than replacement, we may see transformation, where lawyers become orchestrators of AI capabilities rather than solely creators of legal work. I believe we do not yet know whether this version of AI will fulfill its promise or come up short. Both Amodei and my son are speculating. Yet I cannot ignore the unsettling con versation I had with Claude.ai, where it suggested that my future role might be lim ited to client interaction while AI oversees substantive legal work. In its robotic way, it was trying to make me feel better about what AI might mean to lawyers. While this may sound far-fetched, the pace of change over the past 18 months has consistently exceeded expectations. How should we respond? Rather than resist this transformation, we must prepare strate gically. As president of this association, I've identified three priorities:

settlement value of a case, it usually misses the mark by a good measure. It cannot navigate nuanced ethical considerations or provide the empathetic counsel that clients need during difficult legal proceedings. Technology leaders predict that AI's capa bilities will expand exponentially, though we must approach these forecasts with skepticism. In "AI 2027," former OpenAI researcher Daniel Kokotajlo and other prominent AI researchers envision AI sys tems surpassing human intelligence across all domains within three years. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt predicts Artifi cial General Intelligence within three-five years. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei fore casts that 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs will be eliminated within five years. These predictions vary dramatically, and their track record is mixed. McKinsey proj ects that AI will replace 12 million jobs by 2030, but such broad predictions often over look the complexity of human work and the creation of new employment types. As we know from history, technological revolu tions do displace some jobs but then create others. This may be true in this current revolution.

We upgraded our system to provide enhanced user experience for both our website and database. KBA Website and Member Portal Launched Mid-July To access the new member portal, visit www.kybar.org and select “Login” in the upper right-hand side of the window. Once there, select Forgot Password, to enter your email address and select “Send Login Information.” Check your inbox for a password reset email and follow the steps provided, then select “My Dashboard” to log in with your username (your email address) and new password.

New KBA WEBSITE & DATABASE

Once logged in you can: • update your member profile; • access Continuing Legal Education (CLE) records;

• pay 2025–26 dues • and much more!

bench & bar Need help navigating the new log in process? Take a moment to visit our tutorial page, click the New Website Resources button on the homepage, to learn more on how to access your dashboard, as well as important details on how to access other areas of the database and website.

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