In response to the tidal wave of generative AI news, we’ve compiled recent resources on generative AI use in law school and legal practice for faculty and staff. Given the rapid changes in this space, these resources will be regularly updated (last update – 4/9/24).
Other Berkeley Law generative AI information:
- Berkeley Law Generative AI Policy
- We’re collecting a broader group of resources in a Zotero group library; to access the attachments (the online library only includes metadata), please email kchamorro@berkeley.edu.
Generative AI Has Arrived
Generative AI is a form of artificial intelligence that uses multi-layer neural networks to generate novel content, including text, prose, computer code, images, and video. Generative AI tools that have been trained on massive amounts of text data to produce human-like text and answers, such as ChatGPT, are referred to as large language models (LLMs).
The November 2022 public release of ChatGPT ushered in a new AI era that was described as a Promethean moment and a “tipping point for AI”. ChatGPT, which now has an estimated 100 million weekly users, set off a race among tech giants to jump in with similar technologies, including Bard and Duet AI (Google), CoPilot/Bing (Microsoft, powered by ChatGPT), Claude (Anthropic), Llama 2 (Meta), Grok (xAI), and Q (Amazon). For a retrospective of the first year of generative AI in the legal world, take a look at
Top GenAI News
- Washington state judge blocks use of AI-enhanced video as evidence in possible first-of-its-kind ruling, NBC News, 4/2/24
- Legal Industry Players Missed a Microsoft AI Loophole That Could Expose Confidential Data, LegalTech News, 3/20/24
- Elon Musk Sues OpenAI and Sam Altman for Violating the Company’s Principles, New York Times, 3/1/24
- Google Takes down Gemini AI Image Generator. Here’s What You Need to Know, Washington Post, 2/23/24
- OpenAI Unveils A.I. That Instantly Generates Eye-Popping Videos, New York Times, 2/15/24; for recent example, see OpenAI’s Sora: First Impressions)
Generative AI Basics & General Tools
- Ethan Mollick, Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI (new book written by Wharton professor and author of the popular One Useful Thing newsletter)
- How Should I Be Using A.I. Right Now?, The Ezra Klein Show, 4/2/24 (“Give your A.I a personality, spend 10 hours experimenting, and other practical tips from Ethan Mollick”)
- How AI Chatbots like ChatGPT or Bard Work – Visual Explainer, The Guardian, 11/1/23
- AI Terms for Legal Professionals, Lexis Insights, 3/20/23
- Anthropic Prompt Library (this is a great resource for GenAI prompts and use cases)
- One Useful Thing Prompt Library (prompts for education & general use)
Generative AI in Education
Generative AI in Higher Education
- Business Schools Are Going All In on AI, Wall Street Journal, 4/3/24
- Comparing UC Irvine, UC San Diego’s In-House AIs for Faculty, GovTech, 3/26/24
- OpenAI Announces First Partnership with a University, CNBC, 1/18/24
- Understanding AI in Education: A Generative AI Primer, National Centre for AI (UK), 1/2/24
- Fortune Brainstorm AI Conference: Themes and Ideas, The Scholarly Kitchen, 12/20/23
- ChatGPT Has Entered the Classroom: How LLMs Could Transform Education, Nature, 11/14/23
- Evaluating LLMs is a Minefield, Arvind Narayanan & Sayash Kapor, Princeton University, 10/4/23 (lauch event slides from Princeton Language and Intelligence)
- Syllabi Policies for AI Generative Tools (resource created by Lance Eaton)
- AI in Education Group Meeting Notes & Resources (resource created by Daniel Stanford)
- Teaching with AI, OpenAI blog, 8/31/23
- Wharton School: Practical AI for Teachers and Students (5 part video series; updated on 8/5/23; related paper here)
Generative AI in Law School
- David Colarusso, 50 Days of LIT Prompts, published 1/19/24, updated on weekdays through 03/29/24
- Introducing AI Prompt Worksheets for the Legal Profession, AI Law Librarians, 1/10/24
- Bliss, John, Teaching Law in the Age of Generative AI , Jurimetrics (forthcoming), 1/2/24
- Matthew Dahl et al., Large Legal Fictions: Profiling Legal Hallucinations in Large Language Models, (preprint; 1/2/24)
- Generative AI, Having Already Passed the Bar Exam, Now Passes the Legal Ethics Exam LawSites, 11/16/23
- Thoughts on Promises and Challenges of AI in Legal after Yesterday’s AI Summit at Harvard Law School, Bob Ambrogi, LawSites, 9/20/23
- Law Schools Explore AI Integration Amid Industry Transformation, JDJournal, 8/11/23
- Is Resistance to AI in the Law School Classroom Futile?, Michael C. Dorf, Verdict, 7/19/23
- What Does Chat GPT Mean for Us?, Penn Carey Law presentation, 3/24/23 (ChatGPT demos, discussion of how LLMs can be used in law school and legal practice)
- Sample Exercises and Documents for Using Generative AI in the Classroom (Dyane O’Leary, Suffolk University Law School, 6/27/23 Lexis presentation)
- AI Tools for Lawyers: A Practical Guide, 108 Minnesota Law Review (forthcoming, 2023), last revised 6/23/23 (covers both law school & legal practice)
- Tammy Pettinato Oltz, ChatGPT, Professor of Law, 2023 U. Ill. J.L. Tech. & Pol’y 207 (2023)
- Jonathan Choi et al., ChatGPT Goes to Law School, 71 Journal of Legal Education (2022)
Exams
- These Law Students Got to Use AI on Final Exams. How’d They Do?, Reuters, 8/29/23
- Margaret Ryznar, Exams in the Time of ChatGPT, 80 Wash. and Lee L.R. Online 305, 3/28/23
- Stephen Dobson, Why Universities Should Return to Oral Exams in the AI and ChatGPT era, The Conversation, 4/19/23
AI Detection Tools
- OpenAI Confirms That AI Writing Detectors Don’t Work, Ars Technica, 9/8/23
- Evaluating the Effectiveness of Turnitin’s AI Writing Indicator Model, Temple University, Center for the Advancement of Teaching, 9/23.
- OpenAI Can’t Tell If Something Was Written by AI After All, The Verge, 7/25/2023
- Detecting AI, Brainyacts #74, 5/20/23 (comparison of 10 AI detection tools)
- Geoffrey A. Fowler, We tested a new ChatGPT-detector for teachers. It flagged an innocent student. The Washington Post (Online), 4/1/23
Legal Research & Writing
- AI Improves Legal Writing Speed, Not Quality – Study, Reuters, 11/8/23
- From Books To Bytes: A Legal Research Showdown In The Age Of AI, Above the Law, 9/18/23
- The Truth About Hallucinations in Legal Research AI: How to Avoid Them and Trust Your Sources, AI Law Librarians, Al Law Librarians, 9/14/23
- David S. Kemp, Abandoning Precedent: The Case for Bringing ChatGPT into Law Schools, 8/25/23
- Some Law Schools Already Are Using ChatGPT to Teach Legal Research and Writing 109 A.B.A. J. 38 (2023).
- Harrington, Sean, The Case for Large Language Model Optimism in Legal Research from a Law & Technology Librarian, 6/26/23
- Critically Evaluating Legal Information with ChatGPT, AALS Technology Law Summer Webinar Series (recording), 5/24/23
- How ChatGPT and Generative AI Impact Legal Writing and Research Courses, Association of Legal Writing Directors (recording), 2/17/23
- Joseph Regalia, ChatGPT and Legal Writing: The Perfect Union?, 2/22/23
Legal Scholarship
- Jonathan H. Choi, How to Use Large Language Models for Empirical Legal Research, J. Inst. & Theoretical Econ. (forthcoming 2023)
- ‘We’re All Using It’: Publishing Decisions Are Increasingly Aided by AI. That’s Not Always Obvious, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 9/27/23
- Generative AI, ChatGPT, and Google Bard: Evaluating the Impact and Opportunities for Scholarly Publishing, The Scholarly Kitchen, 8/17/23
- Generative AI, The Scholarly Kitchen, 7/20/23 (As of June 2023, many publishers including Wiley, Elsevier, and Springer Nature have amended their policies to explicitly ban ChatGPT as an article co-author)
Admissions
- We Submitted a ChatGPT-Written Law School Admissions Essay, The Recorder, 10/5/23
- Ban or Embrace? Colleges Wrestle With A.I.-Generated Admissions Essays, The New York Times (9/1/23)
- Law Schools Split on ChatGPT in Admissions Essays, Inside Higher Ed, 8/2/23
- Arizona State Law School Embraces AI in Applications, JDJournal, 7/31/23
- Use of ChatGPT Prohibited on Michigan Law School Applications, Reuters, 7/20/23
Legal Research platforms
- Lexis – Lexis + AI
- Lexis+ AI is now available to all faculty and to 2L and 3L students
- LexisNexis Rolls Out Lexis+ AI for General Availability, Promising Hallucination-Free Answers to Legal Questions, LawSites, 10/25/23
- Westlaw – AI @ Thomson Reuters
- “Ask Practical Law AI” is now LIVE on Westlaw
- New AI Features In Practical Law Enable Users To Ask Legal Questions And Find Relevant Contract Clauses, LawSites, 1/24/24
- Artificial Intelligence Toolkit (Practical Law resource)
- Other Legal Research GenAI products
- Co-Counsel from Casetext
- Casetext CoCounsel Launches Timeline Feature, Dewey B Strategic, 12/15/23
- Wolters Kluwer – Wolters Kluwer Integrates GenAI into Its Legal Research Products; Transforms How Legal Professionals Assess and Interpret Court Rulings, 12/11/23
- Bloomberg Law – Artificial Intelligence – Past & Future
- Co-Counsel from Casetext
Generative AI in Legal Practice
- Jon Garon, Ethics 3.0 – Attorney Responsibility in the Age of Generative AI, The Business Lawyer, Am. Bar Assoc, Vol. 79, 4/3/24
- Andrew M. Perlman, The Legal Ethics of Generative AI, Suffolk University Law Review, Forthcoming, 3/24/24
- Eliza Mik, Caveat Lector: Large Language Models in Legal Practice, Volume 19 Rutgers Bus. L.R. 2 2024 (forthcoming)
- Matthew Dahl et al., Large Legal Fictions: Profiling Legal Hallucinations in Large Language Models, preprint, 1/2/24 (testing of ChatGPT 3/5, Llama 2 & PaLM 2)
- Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., 2023 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary (discusses the impact of technology, including AI, on the federal court system)
- Telling My Whole Life With AI’s Words: Ethical Considerations Regarding Attorney Use and Misuse of Artificial Intelligence, The Recorder, 12/18/23
- Shifting Sands: Ethical Guidance for AI in Legal Practice, AI Law Librarians, 12/15/23
- AI Is the New Kid in Town, But Use Caution, The Daily Journal, 12/13/23
- These Lawyers Used ChatGPT to Save Time. They Got Fired and Fined, Washington Post, 11/22/23
- California Bar Passes Disclosure and Billing Guidelines for AI, Bloomberg Law, 11/16/23
- The New Frontier: Panel of Special Advisors for the ABA Task Force on Law and AI, ABA Presidential Speaker Series, 11/7/23 (video)
- Tracking Generative AI: How Evolving AI Models Are Impacting Legal, Legaltech News, 10/12/23 (running compilation)
- Task Force on Responsible Use of Generative AI for Law, law.MIT.ed/AI, 6/2/23
- Generative AI Could Radically Alter the Practice of Law, The Economist, 6/6/23
- What Does Generative AI Mean for the Justice System? (Part 1), GovTech, 7/28/23
- Benjamin Weiser, Here’s What Happens When Your Lawyer Uses ChatGPT, The New York Times, 5/27/23
Access to Justice
- Colleen V. Chien & Miriam Kim, Generative AI and Legal Aid: Results from a Field Study and 100 Use Cases to Bridge the Access to Justice Gap, Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, Forthcoming (2024)
- Colleen V. Chien & Miriam Kim, How LLMs Can Help Address the Access to Justice Gap Through the Courts, 1/12/24
- Legal Design Challenge, Suffolk University Law School, 11/1/23 (law student teams developed GenAI solutions to bridge the justice access gap)
- California Innocence Project Harnesses Generative AI for Work to Free Wrongfully Convicted, ABA Journal, 8/23
Other Resources
Newsletters/Blogs
- One Useful Thing, Ethan Mollick (“a research-based view on the implications of AI”)
- LawSites, Bob Ambrogi (while not focused on just AI, Ambrogi is a leading voice in legal tech)
- Brainyacts Generative AI Newsletter, Josh Kubicki (daily blog on AI in law school and legal practice, with examples and news highlights)
- AI Law Librarians (“All Things AI Law Librarian-ish, Generative AI, and Legal Research/Education/Technology”)
- AI Snake Oil, Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor (“what makes AI click, what makes it fail, and how to tell he difference”)
- SAIL: Sensemaking AI Learning (“explores trends in human and artificial cognition, focusing on how sensemaking and learning are impacted by AI”)
Webinars/Presentations
- The New AI: The Legal and Ethical Implications of ChatGPT and Other Emerging Technologies, presented by the Fordham Law Review and the Neuroscience and Law Center, 11/3/23 (virtual & in-person; registration)
- AI for Attorneys: ChatGPT and Beyond, Bob Ambrogi & Jordan Turk (presented by Smokeball), 8/10/23
- Real Talk Beyond ChatGPT: What Recent AI Advances Mean for Legal, ALM/Law.Com, 3/15/23 (webinar recording)
- Computational Law & Generative AI – Generative AI in the Legal World, Dazza Greenwood, founder of law.MIT.edu, 4/19/23 presentation at Berkeley Law
Podcasts
- Pablo Arredondo on the One-Year Anniversary of CoCounsel, The Geek in Review, 2/29/24
- Projections for Legal Tech and Innovations in 2024 The Geek in Review, 1/15/24
- Unconfuse Me with Bill Gates: Sam Altman, 1/10/24
- A Lot Has Happened in AI – Let’s Catch Up, The Ezra Klein Show, 12/1/23
- Cat Moon and Mark Williams Launch the New Vanderbilt AI Law Lab (VAILL), The Geek in Review, 11/14/23
- How and Why Davis Wright Built Its Own GenAI Chatbot, Legal Speak, 9/15/23
- The Story Behind Gunderson Dettmer’s Launch of ChatGD, Its ‘Homegrown’ Generative AI, Bob Ambrogi, LawNext, 8/17/23