Tony Thai and Ashley Carlisle of HyperDraft, return to The Geek in Review podcast to provide an update on the state of generative AI in the legal industry. It has been 6 months since their last appearance, when the AI Hype Cycle was on the rise. We wanted to get them back on the show to see where we are on that hype cycle at the moment.
While hype around tools like ChatGPT has started to level off, Tony and Ashley note there is still a lot of misinformation and unrealistic expectations about what this technology can currently achieve. Over the past few months, HyperDraft has received an influx of requests from law firms and legal departments for education and consulting on how to practically apply AI like large language models. Many organizations feel pressure from management to "do something" with AI, but lack a clear understanding of the concrete problems they aim to solve. This results in a solution in search of a problem situation.
Tony and Ashley provide several key lessons learned regarding limitations of generative AI. It is not a magic bullet or panacea – you still have to put in the work to standardize processes before automating them. The technology excels at research, data extraction and summarization, but struggles to create final, high-quality legal work product. If the issue being addressed is about standardizing processes or topics, then having the ability to create 50 different ways to answer the issue doesn't create standards, it creates chaos.
Current useful applications center on legal research, brainstorming, administrative tasks – not mission-critical legal analysis. The hype around generative AI could dampen innovation in process automation using robotic process automation and expert systems. Casetext's acquisition by Thomson Reuters illustrates the present-day limitations of large language models trained primarily on case law.
Looking to the near future, Tony and Ashley predict the AI hype cycle will continue to fizzle out as focus shifts to education and literacy around all forms of AI. More legal tech products will likely combine specialized AI tools with large language models. And law firms may finally move towards flat rate billing models in order to meet client expectations around efficiency gains from AI.
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Music: Jerry David DeCicca
Transcript
Josh Kubicki and the Brainyacts Newsletter - Helping You Keep Up with the Advancements of Generative AI in the Legal Industry (TGIR Ep. 198)
The Future of AI within LexisNexis and the Legal Industry with Lexis CTO Jeff Reihl - TGIR Ep. 197
From Pain to Creativity: How AI Helped Kristina Kashtanova Illustrate Her "Zarya of the Dawn" Story - featuring Richmond Law's Ashley Dobbs and Roger Skalbeck (TGIR Ep. 196)
Revolutionizing Legal Technology Design with T&P Studios' Nicole Bradick (TGIR Ep. 195)
The Future of Fashion and the Law (TGIR Ep. 194)
The Legal Singularity and the Future of Legal Research - Benjamin Alarie and Abdi Aidid (TGIR Ep. 193)
Breaking Barriers: The Portia Project's MC Sungaila on the Unique Paths to Success for Women Lawyers and Judges (TGIR Ep. 192)
Johannes Scholtes: AI Is Finally Here. Now the Hard Work Begins for the Legal Industry (TGIR Ep. 191)
Colin Lachance on Jurisage's MyJr and How He's Looking at AI to Assist in the Synthesis and Reading of Legal Cases (TGIR Ep. 190)
The Bullshitter, The Searcher, and The Researcher - Damien Riehl on the Dynamic Shift in How the Legal Profession Will Leverage Standards and Artificial Intelligence
Successful Brand Awareness for Legal Professionals - Tips from Stefanie Marrone (TGIR Ep. 188)
The Secret Weapon: Leveraging Patent Agents to Gain a Competitive Edge - Shayne Phillips (TGIR Ep. 186)
The (ALMOST) Completely AI Generated Podcast (TGIR Ep. 186)
ChatGPT - If It Sounds Too Good To Be True... - Tony Thai and Ashley Carlisle (TGIR Ep. 185)
Redgrave Data's Mollie Nichols on the De-Commoditizing of Data in the Legal Industry (TGIR Ep. 184)
APIs are the LEGO Building Blocks of Data - API Panel Discussion with Emily Rushing, Pam Noyd, Chris O'Connor, Keli Whitnell, and Erik Adams (TGIR Ep. 183)
Creating Actual Transparency Between Law Firms and Clients - Litify's Ari Treuhaft and Pam Wickersham
Nearly Two-Thirds of Legal Contracts are Gender-Biased and Why That Matters - Alex Denne and Caroline Hill (TGIR Ep. 181)
LinkSquares' Tim Parilla and Juliette Kopecky: These Aren't Legal Problems or Tech Problems, These Are Business Problems
The Mission: Eliminate Systemic Racism in the Legal System - LexisNexis' Ronda Bazley Moore (TGIR Ep. 179)
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