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Using AI to Use AI Better
Jerry Lawson Blogs
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AI, Legal Research & Ethics
Cat Moon 😺 likes to say she “lives in the I live in the open mindedness of not knowing enough about anything.”
I dunno. She knows just about everything we need to know about one topic:
“Every single instance of an attorney filing something in court that cites a fake case generated by AI is
Following Nicole Black
Nicole Black’s Sui Generis blog is one of my favorites, a good guide to what’s hot and what’s not, what deserves our attention and what doesn’t. Her recent post The Year Ahead in Legal Tech: AI, Innovation, and Opportunity Tech Trends to Expect in 2025 is overwhelmingly about AI. That should tell you something if
Tip for 2025: Get Serious About IT Security
Detecting scams used to be relatively easy. Social engineers nearly always left clues that made spotting and avoiding them easy.
Things have changed. Scammers are enormously more sophisticated. The Washington Post’s personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary‘s top three rules will go a long way toward keeping you safer:
- Trust no one. Trust nothing
Tip for 2025: Don’t Leave AI at the Office. Bring It Home.
As an Apple Watch fanboy, I often tell my skeptical friends, “Get one. It will improve your quality of life.” Apple Watches have their benefits but are trivial compared to the benefits I’ve gotten using AI for my home and personal needs. AI can help you with everything from finding a recipe for that weird
Large Language Model Weakness: Skewed Training Data
Hordes of social media posts—and even some media outlets like Newsweek—are reporting that the Grok AI app (described by Elon Musk as the “smartest AI on Earth”) concluded that there is a 75% chance that Donald Trump is a Russian asset.I’m no fan of Trump, but I have to point out that Grok’s analysis
Tip for 2025: Embrace Plain English
Clients shouldn’t need a Latin dictionary and a team of cryptographers to understand what they’re paying for. More than a few professionals who are capable of writing clearly fail to do so because they fear that clients would be less willing to pay hefty fees for work product not wrapped in ponderous and incomprehensible jargon.
Tip for 2025: Expand Your Toolbox
Learning to use the tools you already have is usually wiser rather than chasing the newest shiny object du jour. There are a few exceptions. I’ve found two apps particularly useful:
Grammarly. It’s not a spell checker. It’s not a grammar checker. It’s much more. Give it a try. Even lawyers need someone to
Use AI–NOW
Implementing AI is challenging for professions where progress often means figuring out how to get your printer to work. Many lawyers are waiting until they have developed a perfect implementation strategy. They wind up doing nothing.
Lawyers can and should benefit from AI today rather than waiting to develop the world’s greatest policy. Until that
ABA Formal Opinion: AI and Legal Fees
The American Bar Association’s Formal Opinion 512, “Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools,” gets some things right, but goes astray when considering alternative billing models like flat fees:
The factors set forth in Rule 1.5(a) also apply when evaluating the reasonableness of charges for GAI tools when the lawyer and client agree on a flat or