Is It Time to Adopt Generative AI into Your Legal Writing?

Recent breakthroughs in generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology have made many attorneys question how the legal field will survive AI’s takeover. The solution is to embrace it.

Programs like Open AI’s ChatGPT have shown AI’s capability of producing written work product, but people have shown that ChatGPT is not immune to errors. For example, ChatGPT has cited fabricated case law and asserted false assumptions as 100% accurate. Fortunately, tailored AI solutions exist or are on the horizon that can assist lawyers by automatically generating written work product that meets the standards required by the legal field. As these tools arrive in the legal market, the question becomes, is it better to be an early adopter or wait until the technology improves?

Most lawyers likely already use AI without realizing it via such fundamental writing tools as spell-check in Microsoft Word or Grammarly, an automated writing assistant. But generative AI using natural language processing (how humans write and speak) is reaching the point where you can no longer tell whether an AI program or a human wrote what you are reading. Without natural language processing, AI could not generate a written work product. However, AI is unlikely to completely replace a human attorney anytime soon unless artificial general intelligence is achieved. So, while an imminent future like the Matrix or the Terminator is unlikely, AI will soon be able to significantly streamline your workflow.