Beyond Hallucination: Discernment Is Required When Using Generative AI

If you’ve been following the news about lawyers’ use of artificial intelligence, you’ll know that ‘hallucinations’ have been an issue.  When a generative AI tool, like ChatGPT, ‘hallucinates’, it essentially makes things up.  Now, that’s a problem if, say, you’re an attorney adding a court case to a legal brief, that you’ll submit to the court.  There’s a whole line of caselaw, about how bad this can be, starting with Mata v Avianca. 

 

But, that’s kind of an easy solution.  Just double-check your case results, with a reliable source. 

Now, the hallucination problem that arises when you use a free, generative AI program, is partly a database issue – since those generic tools don’t have the same collection of caselaw and secondary sources as would, say, a Lexis or a Westlaw. 

 

Beyond hallucinations, though – is the question of discernment.  What about when an AI purportedly substitutes for an attorney’s judgment? 

 

In addition to identifying cases, AI tools can summarize cases, or identify treatment by courts, or even build arguments around facts, for court briefs – potentially without any human involvement.  Figuring out whether those results are viable, is more difficult (and time-consuming), than simply determining whether a specific case actually exists. 

 

As AI tools develop further, it will be important for attorneys to continue to depend on their own judgment, in vetting AI work product – using their own discernment, to determine whether what the AI says is correct, and reflects what the lawyer wants to say, the strategy that the lawyer wants to deploy. 

 

AI is an assistive technology for attorneys, not a replacement technology – at least, not yet – so, don’t treat it as such. 

 

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If you want to learn more about how to use AI effectively in your law practice, just reach out! 

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