The Risks of AI in Legal Proceedings and How One Judge in Texas is Responding
The integration of artificial intelligence has been one of the most significant developments in recent years across many fields, including legal proceedings. AI-powered tools such as AI-generated content, voice recognition, and chatbots have proved invaluable to law firms and courts over the years. However, as AI continues to advance and improve its capabilities, its integration into legal proceedings has raised concerns about reliability, biases, and accuracy. Recently, a Texas Judge has taken steps to ensure that lawyers do not use AI-generated content in their court filings. In this article, we’ll explore the risks of AI in legal proceedings and how one judge in Texas is tackling the issue.
The Pros and Cons of AI in Legal Proceedings
Artificial intelligence has been a significant boon to law firms and courts around the world since its introduction in the late 1990s. AI has revolutionized many aspects of legal proceedings, from managing legal case files and optimizing workflow to predicting judge’s decisions and sentence lengths. AI has been employed in tasks such as drafting documents, flagging errors, providing case analysis, and conducting legal research. AI tools have improved efficiency in legal proceedings and reduced the time and cost involved in legal procedures.
However, the application of AI has its own set of challenges and limitations. These challenges include accuracy, bias, reliability, and legal compliance. AI technology depends heavily on data, which can result in biased or inconsistent results, depending upon the data inputs. This can lead to systematic discrimination, which can pose a challenge in legal proceedings, as legal proceedings must be free of all biases. Additionally, the use of AI tools in legal proceedings raises concerns about the security of sensitive information. Legal proceedings require confidentiality, which might be violated if data breaches occur.
The Texas Judge and the Impact of AI in Legal Proceedings
On the 31st of May 2023, the mandatory certification of generative artificial intelligence became a requirement for all lawyers appearing in Judge Brantley Starr’s court in the Northern District of Texas. The certification required attorneys to disclose whether any part of their presentation was drafted by generative artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT or Harvey AI, and if it was generated so, it was important that it was verified by a human for accuracy using print reporters or traditional legal databases. Judge Starr said that these certifications were aimed at ensuring that lawyers did not make use of AI-generated content without human verification to comply with legal compliance.
The introduction of this certification is a response to a now-infamous and unprecedented incident that occurred in the court in May. The Attorney Steven Schwartz used ChatGPT in your legal research on a recent federal filing, and the chatbot generated six relevant cases and precedents that were completely wrong. This resulted in the filing of six fake cases that did not exist in court records, causing confusion and raising concerns about the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated content. This incident exemplifies how AI-generated content can not be trusted without human verification.
The Risks and Limitations of AI-generated Content in Legal Proceedings
AI-generated content has shown impressive improvements in its capacity to analyze legal data and provide insights that were previously difficult to come by. However, despite the advances made, AI-generated content is not perfect and comes with a range of risks and limitations, which include;
– Bias: The algorithms used in developing AI-generated content might be biased, resulting in systematic discrimination, especially in legal proceedings where decisions must be fair and unbiased.
– Inaccurate Information: AI-generated content cannot make judgments or decisions based on personal experience or ethical considerations, which human lawyers use to interpret legal information. As a result, they may generate inaccurate information.
– Security Breaches: The use of AI-generated content in legal proceedings increases the potential for security breaches, which can result in the exposure of sensitive legal information to the public.
– Lack of Legal Compliance: Legal proceedings require compliance with specific legal rules and regulations, which can only be achieved through the involvement of a human lawyer.
Why Judge Starr’s Rule Might Set a Precedent for Other Judges
Judge Starr’s rule requiring lawyers to attest to the lack of use of AI-generated content in legal procedures is revolutionary because it changes the game for AI technology in legal proceedings. Many judges worldwide might follow Judge Starr’s lead and adopt similar rules to ensure compliance with legal requirements through human oversight. With the increasing concerns about AI-generated content’s reliability, it is becoming clear that AI-generated content must be monitored accordingly to prevent inaccuracy, bias, or security breaches in legal proceedings.
The Road Ahead
With AI technology advancing rapidly, it is essential that there is a regulatory framework in place to govern its use in legal proceedings. AI-generated content must be transparent, verified, and auditable to comply with legal requirements. In conclusion, while AI-generated content has improved the efficiency and productivity of legal proceedings, it must be treated with caution and human oversight to ensure accuracy, reliability, and compliance with legal requirements.
Summary
Judge Brantley Starr of the Northern District of Texas required all lawyers appearing in his court to submit a certificate declaring that no part of the presentation is drafted by generative artificial intelligence (AI) or that any language drafted by generative AI was verified for accuracy using print reporters or traditional legal databases by a human. Judge Starr’s decision comes after a recent incident in May when an attorney used AI-generated content, ChatGPT, to supplement legal research and ended up reporting six fake court cases. The article explores the pros and cons of AI in legal proceedings, Judge Starr’s rule, and why it might set a precedent for other judges, and the risks and limitations of AI-generated content in legal proceedings. Ultimately, AI-generated content must have regulatory frameworks to ensure transparency, verification, and audibility for compliance with legal requirements.
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Few lawyers would be foolish enough to let an AI make its case, but one already has, and Judge Brantley Starr is taking steps to ensure the debacle is not repeated in his Justice room.
The federal judge in Texas added a requirement that any attorney appearing in his court must attest that “no part of the submission was redacted by generative artificial intelligence,” or if it was, that it was verified “by a human being.”
Last week, attorney Steven Schwartz allowed ChatGPT to “supplement” your legal research on a recent federal filing, giving you six relevant cases and precedents, all of which were completely blown away by the language model. the now “he really regrets” doing thisAnd while the national coverage of this mistake probably made other lawyers think about giving it a try, Judge Starr doesn’t want to take any chances.
On the federal site for the Northern District of Texas, Starr has, like other judges, the opportunity to set specific rules for his courtroom. And recently added (although it’s unclear if this was in response to the aforementioned submission) is the “Mandatory Certification in Generative Artificial Intelligence.” Eugene Volok first reported the news.
All attorneys appearing in Court must submit a certificate on file attesting that no part of the presentation was drafted by generative artificial intelligence (such as ChatGPT, Harvey.AI, or Google Bard) or that any language drafted by generative artificial intelligence was Verified for accuracy, using print reporters or traditional legal databases, by a human.
Attached is a form for attorneys to sign, noting that “citations, subpoenas, paraphrased statements, and legal analysis” are covered by this proscription. Since summarizing is one of AI’s strengths, and finding and summarizing precedent or past cases is something that has been heralded as potentially useful in legal work, this may end up coming into play more often than expected.
Whoever wrote the memo on this matter in Judge Starr’s office knows it. The certification requirement includes a fairly well-informed and convincing explanation of its need (line breaks added for readability):
These platforms are incredibly powerful and have many uses in law: divorce forms, discovery requests, suggested errors in documents, advance questions in oral argument. But legal information is not one of them. This is why.
These platforms in their current states are prone to hallucinations and biases. About hallucinations, they make things up, even quotes and mentions. Another problem is reliability or bias. While lawyers take an oath to set aside their personal biases, biases, and beliefs in order to faithfully uphold the law and represent their clients, generative artificial intelligence is the product of programming devised by humans who did not have to take such an oath.
As such, these systems have no loyalty to any customer, the rule of law, or the laws and Constitution of the United States (or, as mentioned above, the truth). Free of any sense of duty, honor, or justice, these programs act according to computer code rather than conviction, based on programming rather than principle. Any party that believes that a platform has the accuracy and reliability required for legal reporting can apply for a license and explain why.
In other words, be prepared to justify yourself.
While this is just one judge in a court, it wouldn’t be surprising if others took this rule as their own. While, as the court says, this is powerful and potentially useful technology, its use must, at a minimum, be clearly stated and verified for accuracy.
No ChatGPT in my court: Judge orders all AI-generated content must be declared and checked
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