VAILL

What can we learn about AI and the practice of law from *students*? A LOT. Because law students are super-curious, uber-creative, and haven't yet "assimilated." 👊 Check out Ellie Olson's advice in post no. 1 of our series! See comments for link, or check your inbox if you subscribed to The AI of Law.

Starting today, we're sharing a series of manifestos, written by law students for law students. We're calling it "AI goes to law school," and believe us when we say: these students understand more about the impact of AI on the legal profession than many (most?) practicing lawyers. Follow along and learn from the students! https://lnkd.in/dDpW9Gfc

We've seen the LLM-aggregation platform Poe popping up in posts around here and knew we hit on something when we built it into Day 9 of Exploring GenAI. 🔥 Poe is a great way to experiment across GenAI tools and get a good feel for which tools work best for what purposes, and for your specific goals and preferences. Check out Day 9 (it's a great stand-alone lesson) or dive into the entire 10-day journey with us. Link to all the lessons on the VAILL Substack, The AI of Law, in the comments 👇

🏎️ We're cruising right along in our exploration of GenAI! Day 8: Advanced Prompting Techniques 💬 just dropped. Only 2 more days to go, and this first e-course will be a wrap. 🔥 The good news: You can take the course anytime, at your convenience. All 10 days will live on the VAILL Substack, The AI of Law. 🎉 See link to Day 0 of Exploring GenAI with VAILL in the comments. We're adding links to this post for each day's lesson as it drops so you can follow along anytime. Expect to see new learning opportunities around AI for legal professionals in 2025!

ICYMI: The North Carolina State Bar formally adopted its Ethics Opinion on AI in Legal Practice. At the start of this year, 2024 FEO 1 proposed considerations for how lawyers may ethically use artificial intelligence. After two rounds of public comment, this opinion provides high-level guidance on our duties of competence, diligence, and confidentiality. Ultimately, 2024 FEO 1 makes it clear that lawyers can use these powerful tools responsibly. For the full text of 2024 FEO 1, check the Winter 2024 Journal below or here: https://lnkd.in/eAizp6Qx Like most industries, many lawyers are already using AI tools in practice. For those just beginning to explore how AI can support your practice, there are excellent resources available. For instance, Vanderbilt's AI Law Lab (VAILL) just launched a 10-day guided exercise series that will take the guesswork out of getting started with generative AI tools. Check it out here and follow along at your own pace: https://lnkd.in/eDgf3YbY AI is already transforming how lawyers work, and this is just the starting point for ethical guidance. Are there ethical questions about AI in legal practice that you think future opinions should address? #ArtificialIntelligence #genAI #AI #ethics #LegalTech #emergingtech

This post from Ethan Mollick may be his most useful to legal professionals, as we try to figure out the what/how/why of generative AI. He identifies 15 types of tasks that GenAI is useful for, and 5 that are a no-go. The good: 🟢 No. 2 on his list? "Work where you are an expert and can assess quickly whether AI is good or bad." The human in the loop must be able to accurately assess the output. This should assuage fears of lawyers about GenAI taking over our work—or at least most (some?) of it. For now. 🟢 No. 4 on his list: "Work that is mere translation between frames or perspectives." When combined with No. 2, this is an ideal use of GenAI: when we use it to translate complicated legal information for a specific audience. We only know if the translation is a good one if we are an expert. 🟢 Nos. 5 and 8 go to using GenAI as an idea generator or editor/curator when writing, and if you know how to effectively use a GenAI tool for this purpose, it's a veritable goldmine. Figuring this out for your specific purposes takes some time and experimentation. Put in the work, and you will get value out. 🟢 No. 10: "Work where you need a first pass view at what a hostile, friendly, or naive recipient might think." I suggest that many lawyers could use this to be much more effective in written communication, especially email. Based on having received emails from lawyers for almost 30 years now. 🟢 No. 14: "Work where you want a second opinion. Give an AI access to the data and see if reaches the same conclusion." Again, when combined with No. 2, this can be incredibly fruitful. And, again, you need to understand how to ask the AI, and what information to give it, to get value out. And this requires experimentation. Now, for the bad: 🔴 No. 1 on this list is critical: "When you need to learn and synthesize new ideas or information. Asking for a summary is not the same as reading for yourself." And, No. 4: "When the effort is the point." While obvious, the question for us now is how we're going to stop ourselves (and our students, if you're in legal ed) from doing this very thing. Maybe this apparent curse is a blessing. Because one potential future requires us to be much more intentional about how we teach. And if the way we teach now makes it too easy for students to phone it in (and this happens not just with GenAI), then the problem is not just with the students. The problem is also with us. 🔴 No. 2: "When very high accuracy is required." If you're an expert and can vet the output, you'll know if it's accurate or not. That lawyers continue to rely on GenAI and then don't vet the output is vexing but this is a lawyer problem, not a technology problem. 🔴 No. 3: "When you do not understand the failure modes of AI." and No. 5: "When AI is bad." This is why lawyers need to experiment with GenAI. Full stop. Link in comments. 👇

Rolling right along, we're now on Day 3 of Exploring GenAI with VAILL! 🤖 Today, we experiment with using a GenAI tool for content creation, from brainstorming to drafting. 📄 The key here? 🔑 Exploring with a tool to understand how (and if) GenAI can augment content creation in *your* workflow. The only way to know? Give it a try! 🔥 You can follow along via Substack (link below in comments) and even sign up to get the remaining 7 days in your inbox! 👇

Day 2 of Exploring GenAI with VAILL just dropped 👇 Today, we explore the art of prompting 🎨 — if you're new to conversational GenAI tools, today's e-lesson offers a semi-structured way to get started. And, even if you're not new to using GenAI tools, we invite you to follow along and brush up on your skills! See comments for the link to Day 2's post. Want more? You can sign up via Substack to have each of the following 8 days appear auto-magically in your inbox. ✨

Day 1 of Exploring GenAI with VAILL is live on The AI of Law, our Substack publication! It's the first day in a 10-day journey inviting you to learn about GenAI though simple experiments with a conversational AI tool + reflection on your experimentation. For the next 10 (business) days, you can sign up to get the e-course delivered directly to your inbox. Designed for folks who are new to GenAI, it's a loosely-structured way to give you 10 hours of "practice" with the tools. And experimentation and practice are the only ways to figure out how GenAI can augment *your* work! See comments for links to the following posts: 🚀 Day 0: Welcome to Exploring GenAI with VAILL! 👯 Exploring GenAI with VAILL: Building Your AI Learning Community 👣 Exploring GenAI with VAILL: Day 1

Yes, it's a Saturday *and* the first day of a holiday break, and I've spent much of my time today working because I'm so *excited* to be putting finishing touches on a project that's been in the queue and is finally shipping! VAILL's first e-course 🚀 "Exploring GenAI with VAILL" 🚀 It's an *email* course and while this may sound like an archaic format, hear me out. There is only one place to meet almost everyone exactly where they are, and that place is EMAIL. We're going to make it so easy to explore, all you have to do is open an email! 🔥 "Exploring" is designed for anyone in legal who's curious about GenAI but has yet to engage in any meaningful way. It's a practical, easy, and fun way to start experimenting and figuring out how this technology can supercharge *your* work. And, while it's designed for beginners, we also think folks who have had some interaction with GenAI conversational tools (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude) will get good "practice" with the tools by following our set of exercises. The final output will serve as a roadmap for your personal GenAI journey. 🗺️ The approach we use is a combo of experimentation 🔬 + reflection 🤔 based on the latest research on effective learning methods. 💡 BTW, did you know that research shows it can be more effective to reflect following a small amount of practice in learning a new thing, rather than doubling down on more practice without reflection? 🔥 You can learn more about "Exploring" in VAILL's first post on its new Substack: The AI of Law 🤖 ⚖️ . The e-course drops on December 2, with a couple of preview posts dropping in the next few days. See comments for link!