National Law Journal Op-Ed: Law Schools Must Embrace AI, by Joseph Landau (Fordham; Google Scholar) & Ron Lazebnik (Fordham):
Artificial intelligence tools have been around for some time, but the emergence of ChatGPT was a game changer. In legal education, AI holds immense potential to revolutionize our administration, pedagogy, programming, and research. The rise of intelligent machines offers us the opportunity to explore new teaching methods, such as personalized learning experiences, data-driven assessments, and adaptive curricula. By leveraging AI, we can equip our students with the skills necessary to thrive in a technology-driven legal profession.
With summer break in full swing, law schools can reflect on the past year’s experiments with the release of bots like ChatGPT to chart a path for the coming academic year and beyond. While the initial concerns, skepticism and frustration with generative AI in the immediate aftermath of ChatGPT are understandable, it is only by focusing on the convergence of legal technology and legal education that we can best prepare students consistent with our core goals, values and principles. In short, this is the time to engage in strategic thinking and planning so that our students can learn to navigate this evolving landscape now and make important contributions to their fields once they graduate.
Naturally, law schools must consider the rules of the road for student use of generative AI, including the primacy of academic integrity in the wake of new technologies. At Fordham, we quickly convened our permanent and adjunct faculty following Open AI’s release of ChatGPT and made critical policy changes so that unauthorized use of generative AI for classroom assignments and exams would be treated no differently than turning in another person’s work product. These were significant changes that required the input of faculty, administrators and technologists, and law schools must be vigilant to maintain academic integrity. But if our discussions about AI are focused exclusively on integrity and security, we will miss important opportunities, and our students will not be appropriately prepared to enter the rapidly evolving legal marketplace. …
For legal education, this means an approach that integrates technology rather than relegating it to the margins and an ability to pivot to a new era of legal practice so that it is shaped from within, not just by tech industries looking for new markets. Starting next fall, law schools might consider a variety of initiatives, including: …
While AI may eliminate some legal jobs, the legal profession will continue to thrive as new technology enables lawyers to spend less time on basic tasks and more time on developing creative legal strategies and providing more personalized client services. And while emerging technologies are by no means a substitute for the kind of critical thinking, reflection, and professional judgment that lie at the heart of a solid legal education, law school graduates who are trained in these tools and understand how to take advantage of them will have the best opportunity to build fulfilling careers and lead the profession into the future.
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2023/07/law-schools-must-embrace-ai.html