CBA Record July-August 2023

YOUNG LAWYERS SECTION

As a computer scientist, I can pro vide a technical definition of an AI chatbot: An AI chatbot is a software application that leverages artificial intelligence techniques to engage in natural language conversations with users. It employs various tech nologies, including natural lan guage processing (NLP), machine learning, and possibly deep learn ing, to understand and generate human-like responses . Some tech luminaries fear that, through additional development, these LLMs will somehow become sentient. If this sounds somewhat far-fetched, that is because to a certain degree it is. (This author intends no disrespect to the amaz ing technical minds that are advancing technology at an incredible pace, but as an individual with a computer science degree, this author is trained to always be skeptical of the touted promises of new computer-based technology.) The easiest way to understand how these new breeds of chatbots work is to play around with them yourself. You can sign up for a free ChatGPT account at https://chat.openai.com. Now, whether society is on the road to a Terminator style future is perhaps a topic for another article, but in the meantime, lawyers are already grappling with this technology for better or worse. Because these chatbots source and learn from a large corpus of information stored online, and potentially elsewhere, the ability to use them for research is obvious. Treating a chatbot like a search engine is not the worst idea if your goal is to find useful background information on a topic. For lawyers, though, the possibil ity of conducting legal research via chat bots is promising, but it is not without its flaws. If you ask chatbots for the hold ing in prominent United States Supreme Court cases, they will likely swiftly deliver accurate results. But if you ask chatbots Why Should Lawyers Care about AI Chatbots?

for the holding of a case decided by an Illinois state court in a collar county or downstate, or the local rules of procedure or practice for litigation matters, you may be out of luck (for now). Again, given that these chatbots are trained on data publicly available on the internet, they may not have access to more local or niche content for the time being. That said, since these chatbots may be trained on information fed to them, a future where a lawyer trains their own chatbot, on their own servers, with the precedent that the lawyer cares about is on the horizon. Generating content is one area in which chatbots are already useful. For example, if you need to write an article about the legal implications of de-dollarization on your clients engaged in cross-border trade, you can prompt a chatbot to produce a five bullet-point outline to jog your creative juices. Similarly, prompting a chatbot to produce 100 words on the history of habeas corpus can help with writer’s block. Where lawyers need tread carefully is in using a chatbot for producing legal work product. Most of the chatbots on the market are closed-source software packages, and as such, it is unclear how the compa nies behind them may use the information you input into their systems. Accordingly, lawyers should never put privileged, con fidential, sensitive, or identifying client information into a chat prompt. These chatbots may also lead to new ways for lawyers and law firms to conduct business. The example of a customized Library of Babel built from a firm’s tem plates and practice areas should, in theory, make lawyers better at their jobs. Similarly, firms should be able to accelerate generat ing content for firm marketing by using these tools. Clients are also interested in the technology, and as a result they may come up with new ways for outside coun sel to engage with their companies. Though there is great promise in the technology, significant drawbacks What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of AI Chatbots?

abound. One potential drawback is that, according to a large body of research, chatbots exhibit bias and are not attuned conforming to certain norms. For exam ple, some worry that chatbots produce disinformation, political bias, and gender bias. This may be because these systems are limited by the training data that they access, and they are not capable of devel oping human sensibilities or cultural awareness. Lawyers need to be mindful of potential inherent biases present in chat bots’ work product. Also, sometimes chatbots simply spit out nonsense. One New York Times reporter answered the question “Why do [these chatbots] get stuff wrong?” as follows: “Because they learn from the internet. Think about how much mis information and other garbage is on the web.” (C. Metz, “Why Chatbots Some times Act Weird and Spout Nonsense,” New York Times, https://www.nytimes. com/2023/02/16/technology/chatbots explained.html, last accessed 5/19/2023.) Indeed, chatbots are not truth engines. The Future Chatbots, such as ChatGPT, Google’s Bard, and Microsoft’s Bing AI, are useful tools that are already producing considerable changes to society generally and the legal profession specifically. Lawyers are well advised to edu cate themselves about these tools and figure out how to incorporate them into their practice. That said, will AI replace lawyers? Let’s see what ChatGPT has to say about that: “While AI has the potential to auto mate certain tasks and improve efficiency in the legal field, it is unlikely to completely replace lawyers… AI can augment legal practice, but it is unlikely to replace the skills, expertise, and judgment that human lawyers bring to the profession.” That sounds about right.

Nelson M. Rosario is the founder of Rosario Tech Law, LLC, a firm that works with clients dealing with emerging technologies that are changing the way we think about privacy, property, and power.

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