In this episode of The Geek in Review, hosts Greg Lambert and Marlene Gebauer interview three guests from UK law firm Travers Smith about their work on AI: Chief Technology Officer Oliver Bethel, Director of Legal Technology Sean Curran, and AI Manager Sam Lansley. They discuss Travers Smith's approach to testing and applying AI tools like generative models.
A key focus is finding ways to safely leverage AI while mitigating risks like copyright issues and hallucination. Travers Smith built an internal chatbot called YCNbot to experiment with generative AI through secure enterprise APIs. They are being cautious on the generative side but see more revolutionary impact from reasoning applications like analyzing documents.
Travers Smith has open sourced tools like YCNbot to spur responsible AI adoption. Collaboration with 273 Ventures helped build in multi-model support. The team is working on reducing dependence on manual prompting and increasing document analysis capabilities. They aim to be model-agnostic to hedge against reliance on a single vendor.
On model safety, Travers Smith emphasizes training data legitimacy, multi-model flexibility, and probing hallucination risks. They co-authored a paper on subtle errors in legal AI. Dedicated roles like prompt engineers are emerging to interface between law and technology. Travers Smith is exploring AI for tasks like contract review but not yet for work product.
When asked about the crystal ball for legal AI, the guests predicted the need for equitable distribution of benefits, growth in reasoning applications vs. generative ones, and movement toward more autonomous agents over manual prompting. Info providers may gain power over intermediaries applying their data.
This wide-ranging discussion provides an inside look at how one forward-thinking firm is advancing legal AI in a prudent and ethical manner. With an open source mindset, Travers Smith is exploring boundaries and sharing solutions to propel the responsible use of emerging technologies in law.
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Music: Jerry David DeCicca
Transcript
Text, Context, and SCOTUS' Textualism in Bostock - Andrew Koppelman and Sara Harris
Conversations on Race in the Legal Industry - Bryan Parker and Jonathan Greenblatt
The Georgia Copyright Trilogy… The Final Chapter
The Do's and Don't's of Virtual Conferences - Litera's Haley Altman and Alma Asay
Launching the Legal Value Network - Kristina Lambright and Purvi Sanghvi
Why Retention of Legal Talent Can't Be The Equivalent of a Coin Flip - Bryan Parker of Legal Innovators
Heidi Gardner and Brian Stearns: Remote Collaboration from Tools to Psychology
Let's Talk About Our Side Projects
Charlie Uniman - Failure is not the Ugly F-Word Lawyers Think It Is
A Chat About Chatbots and The Law With Katherine Lowry and Diego Alcala
What Should Law Firms Do To Prepare for a Possible COVID-19 Epidemic? With the ALA's April Campbell
The Innovative Concept of Legal Writing in Plain English
Nick Pryor and BCLP³'s Global Innovation Mission
Professor Steve Black on Cybersecurity in the Legal Market
Matt Sunbulli on Fishbowl's Entry into the Legal Industry Social Media Space
The Leadership Journey with Laura Toledo and Kevin Iredell
Ellyssa Valenti Kroski on Law Librarians in the Age of AI, and a Hamilton Escape Room
Professor Ben Barton on Fixing Law Schools
Deep Dive on State Copyright Issues with Kyle Courtney and Ed Walters
The AALL Animal Law Caucus: Acknowledging and Researching Animal Rights in a People-Centric World
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