The more I share how ChatGPT can be used by legal bloggers and writers, the more I hear that GPT, by giving wrong advice, is dangerous and unethical.
Dave Winer’s comments, over the weekend, were spot on.
To people who say you get wrong answers from ChatGPT, if I wanted my car to kill me I could drive into oncoming traffic. If I wanted my calculator to give me incorrect results I could press the wrong keys. In other words, ChatGPT is a very new tool. It can be hard to control, you have to check what it says, and try different questions. But the result, if you pay attention and don’t drive it under the wheels of a bus, is that you can do things you never could do before.
Agreed. I use GPT, throughout the day, as a tool for writing and other work. I get more done on more things in a more creative way than I ever got done before GPT.
I get ideas, drafts, insight and feedback on items I am working on. Moves things along much faster and at higher level of thinking than ever. Obviously I would review and digest what it’s saying – just as I would as to any written documents or insight – even coming from a lawyer.
If you did trial work, think of jury instructions from your state’s model jury instructions. Without those model jury instructions, you, the other side and the judge would be dead in knowing where to straight in crafting and arguing proper instructions.
But those instructions were only a start. You also never took them verbatim. A heck of a start which even guided you in how you presented your case. But you read them over in depth and reviewed relevant case for guidance on your proposed additions and deletions. Your proposed jury instructions were yours, not verbatim out of a book
Florida lawyer, Richard Georges, hit on the same point this morning commenting on what I had shared.
As for those who say lawyers can get into trouble using it, we say that AI product is just a starting point, and that editing and rewriting its content in the lawyer’s voice, and checking the accuracy of its fact statements, are just as essential to its use. So, learn how to use Chat GPT, grasshopper, or be left in the dust.
The knee jerk reaction of of a lot of lawyers that AI is something dangerous or unethical is a bigger problem than many realize. It limits access to legal services.