The Highs and Lows of Today’s AI Technology
Last week I had the opportunity once again to attend the Pennsylvania Bar Institute’s Continuing Legal Education two day program, The Elder Law Institute, in Harrisburg. Having participated in this forum for about twenty years now I have seen it as an opportunity to catch up with old friends, elder law attorneys
throughout the state, and reliable information sources.
On Thursday one program in particular, on Artificial Intelligence, (commonly referred to as AI), proved to be fascinating, amazing, disorienting, thought provoking and disconcerting. It was not my first encounter with the technology but it brought to my attention uses I had not considered before. AI has been described as “a field of computer science that allows computers to perform tasks
that are typically associated with human intelligence, such as problem-solving, learning, and reasoning. AI can also enable computers to perceive, interact with their environment, and even be creative.” https://www.intel.com.
One of my last experiences with AI introduction was at a Forum conducted in person and attended by me, sponsored by the National Elder Law Foundation (NELF) in Chicago last summer. The speaker described differences between AI generally and generative AI and pointed to some problems that have already been experienced by attorneys, most notably in connection with legal positions taken during litigation. AI originated by obtaining information but then expanded its reach into “generative” AI that could produce as far as lawyers are concerned entire briefs and arguments possibly out of thin air. This has obvious risks. The dangers and uses of generative AI, the type that can produce – one might say even fabricate – case law to support a position are obvious and attorneys have been sanctioned for casual reliance on its validity. The fact that generative AI could identify and describe cases that never existed has resulted in Court decisions and rules severely limiting and/or prohibiting use of Artificial Intelligence as a basis for decision making in some cases. On the other hand, AI’s uses, especially for preliminary research and for routine and repetitive tasks can be astounding.
Last Thursday at the Elder Law Institute we watched as the speaker, an attorney himself but one well versed in the technology, demonstrated how he could speak AI commands into the system and generate correspondence, entire briefs in support of a position, and make modifications according to emphasis and point of view. It was not to substitute for human understanding.
Suppose an attorney wanted to research first using standard AI and then use the results of the search, for instance, to write a brief incorporating the information obtained. The speaker noted that the end product, while impressive, would still only be comparable to giving the job to an assistant someone not necessarily so knowledgeable. He strongly cautioned that AI should be used as though it is an inexperienced “assistant” given a task that is then turned over to you as the attorney to critique and modify based on prior knowledge and understanding of relevant existing case law. There is a reason for human input after all!
Here are some examples we reviewed.
AI was able to identify, locate and print relevant statutes in your field. It then could “analyze” based on information available to it. The attorney, based on experience could realize there is more to it than that.
To give examples how the technology could be used the speaker requested subjects which he then spoke into the online system. Some of the proposed ideas were as simple as routine correspondence such as “write a letter to Client x and indicate that response to you is imperative soon. He then modified the request to request that the letter adopt a more conciliatory or a more demanding tone. Requests were made for statutes that his version of AI then produced. He then requested rewrites in other languages such as Russian which it immediately printed.
The speaker also asked simple questions such as “why is elder law important?” Then he requested the program to reframe its answer to reflect the age of the reader or the sophistication such as “explain why elder law is important but assume the reader is an elementary school student.” The program immediately generated a response. It was fascinating and gives a great deal of food for thought how to use this technology now and in the future.
About the Author Janet Colliton
Esquire, Colliton Law Associates, P.C. Janet Colliton has practiced law for over 38 years, 37 of them in Chester County, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Her practice, Colliton Law Associates, PC, is limited to elder law, Medicaid, including advice, applications and appeals, and other benefits planning including Veterans benefits, life care and special needs planning, guardianships, retirement, and estate planning and administration.