Wired – “Large law firms are using a tool made by OpenAI to research and write legal documents. What could go wrong? “David Wakeling, head of London-based law firm Allen & Overy’s markets innovation group, first came across law-focused generative AI tool Harvey in September 2022. He approached OpenAI, the system’s developer, to run a small experiment. A handful of his firm’s lawyers would use the system to answer simple questions about the law, draft documents, and take first passes at messages to clients. The trial started small, Wakeling says, but soon ballooned. Around 3,500 workers across the company’s 43 offices ended up using the tool, asking it around 40,000 queries in total. The law firm has now entered into a partnership to use the AI tool more widely across the company, though Wakeling declined to say how much the agreement was worth. According to Harvey, one in four at Allen & Overy’s team of lawyers now uses the AI platform every day, with 80 percent using it once a month or more. Other large law firms are starting to adopt the platform too, the company says. The rise of AI and its potential to disrupt the legal industry has been forecast multiple times before. But the rise of the latest wave of generative AI tools, with ChatGPT at its forefront, has those within the industry more convinced than ever.”
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Daily Archives: February 22, 2023
60% of Americans Would Be Uncomfortable With Provider Relying on AI in Their Own Health Care
“A new Pew Research Center survey explores public views on artificial intelligence (AI) in health and medicine – an area where Americans may increasingly encounter technologies that do things like screen for skin cancer and even monitor a patient’s vital signs. The survey finds that on a personal level, there’s significant discomfort among Americans with… Continue Reading
ChatGPT, Professor of Law
Pettinato Oltz, Tammy, ChatGPT, Professor of Law (February 4, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4347630 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4347630 “Although ChatGPT was just released by OpenAI in November 2022, legal scholars have already been delving into the implications of the new tool for legal education and the legal profession. Several scholars have recently written fascinating pieces examining ChatGPT’s… Continue Reading
Wildlife warning: More than 330 species contaminated with ‘forever chemicals’
Environmental Working Group (EWG): “Polar bears have a PFAS problem: Pollution from the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS contaminates polar bears, tigers, monkeys, pandas, dolphins and fish and has been documented in more than 330 other species of wildlife around the world, some endangered or threatened. And hundreds of studies have found PFAS chemicals in… Continue Reading
AI-created images lose U.S. copyrights in test for new technology
Reuters: “Images in a graphic novel that were created using the artificial-intelligence system Midjourney should not have been granted copyright protection, the U.S. Copyright Office said in a letter seen by Reuters. “Zarya of the Dawn” author Kris Kashtanova is entitled to a copyright for the parts of the book Kashtanova wrote and arranged, but… Continue Reading
What did they know, and when did they know it? The Microsoft Bing edition
Gary Marcus – Substack – The Road to AI We Can Trust – A new discovery that makes a curious story a whole lot more curious. “We all know by now just how off the rails Bing can get. Here’s a timeline, deliberately leaving out one surprising thing out until the end. March 23, 2016: Microsoft… Continue Reading
Nearly 30 percent of work remains remote as workers dig in
The Hill: “The pandemic may be winding down, but the work-from-home revolution marches on. Nearly 30 percent of all work happened at home in January, six times the rate in 2019, according to WFH Research, a data-collection project. In Washington and other large urban centers, the share of remote work is closer to half. In… Continue Reading
IRS Needs to Complete Modernization Plans and Fully Address Cloud Computing Requirements
Information Technology: IRS Needs to Complete Modernization Plans and Fully Address Cloud Computing Requirements, GAO-23-104719 Published: Jan 12, 2023. Publicly Released: Feb 07, 2023. “The Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) legacy IT environment includes applications, software, and hardware, which are outdated but still critical to day-to-day operations. Specifically, GAO’s analysis showed that about 33 percent of… Continue Reading
Russian propagandists are buying Twitter blue-check verifications
Washington Post: “Accounts pushing Kremlin propaganda are using Twitter’s new paid verification system to appear more prominently on the global platform, another sign that Elon Musk’s takeover is accelerating the spread of politically charged misinformation, a nonprofit research group has found. The accounts claim to be based outside of Russia, so they can pay for… Continue Reading
Passion Projects in Law Librarianship: A Belated Tribute to Igor Kavass and His Personal Mission to Acquire and Organize U.S. International Agreements
Passion Projects in Law Librarianship: A Belated Tribute to Igor Kavass and His Personal Mission to Acquire and Organize U.S. International Agreements. 114 Law Library Journal 431 [2022-18] “In 1973, Kavass and his friend, Adolf Sprudzs, a law librarian at the University of Chicago, created the UST Cumulative Index, 1950–1970, which organized more than 5,000… Continue Reading
