Image Credits: @emilianovittoriosi on Unsplash (Unsplash License)
American social media platform, Twitter, reached one million users in nearly 24 months; Facebook reached one million users in 10 months, and for OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a mere five days to reach one million users. So, what exactly is ChatGPT, and what implications does it pose to the American legal field?
INTRODUCTION
Released on November 30, 2022, by OpenAI, ChatGPT is a conversational chatbot allowing its users to enter queries in order to receive a response. One of its most noteworthy capabilities is its ability to produce sophisticated, high-quality outputs across a broad range of tasks, from explaining molecular biology in simple terms or writing an essay analyzing Shakespearian tragedies; this quality is one of many that separate ChatGPT from previously developed chatbots, which had clear limitations in their quality of outputs. Another notable feature ChatGPT offers is its ability to recall information from a user’s prior query, allowing the user to provide follow-up corrections. While ChatGPT marks a tipping point for artificial intelligence, users are encouraged to recognize the limitations of its current model prior to entering a query, as ChatGPT may occasionally generate incorrect information, produce harmful instructions or biased content, and possess limited knowledge of the world and events after 2021. Currently, ChatGPT remains free for all to use, as this model of ChatGPT is considered a preview phase allowing OpenAI to review all users’ conversations to improve ChatGPT’s systems.
ChatGPT’s remarkable features have prompted professionals of all fields to begin exploring the ways in which it may transform their fields, and particularly, legal professionals, as ChatGPT’s ability to generate human-like texts may be applied in various methods by practitioners. Even today, both law school students and practitioners use artificial intelligence applications such as Westlaw or Lexis, so ChatGPT poses an important question: How exactly can highly-sophisticated artificial intelligence like ChatGPT be utilized effectively in the legal field?
LEGAL RESEARCH AID/LEGAL GUIDANCE
As ChatGPT specializes in providing quick and sophisticated responses, a potential way in which it may benefit legal practitioners is through streamlining the process of legal research. Because there is a vast amount of legal materials that are often dense, ChatGPT allows a user to filter past irrelevant materials, so they can focus on relevant documents that may help with a task, such as referencing a past brief to build a stronger case. When asked how it may help with legal research, ChatGPT responds that when a user is searching for information on a specific legal issue, they may ask ChatGPT a question, to which the model will “provide relevant legal information and sources, such as statutes, cases, and regulations. ChatGPT can also assist in legal document review, such as contracts or briefs, by identifying potential issues or areas of concern.” The model then concludes that “it’s important to note that ChatGPT should not be used as a substitute for professional legal advice,” and that users should consult a licensed attorney for legal guidance rather than relying on ChatGPT. While ChatGPT cannot offer legal guidance, experts have noted that it is able to offer somewhat sound legal advice on issues such as correcting a social security payment or filing a petition.
LEGAL DOCUMENT DRAFTING/REVIEWING
Another method in which ChatGPT may assist lawyers is in drafting or reviewing legal documents. Experts cite that a practitioner may use ChatGPT in a variety of ways: examples include preparing first drafts of a legal document, editing the draft ChatGPT generates as needed, generating ideas from ChatGPT to escape a writer’s block, and receiving feedback or corrections on drafts. ChatGPT corroborates this, stating that one way in which it may assist is by “providing suggestions and feedback on grammar, tone, and structure. For instance, users can ask ChatGPT to review their legal documents, such as memos or briefs, and the model can provide suggestions on how to improve the document’s readability and effectiveness.” ChatGPT may help lawyers streamline typically lengthy tasks, allowing for the improvement of quality and efficiency in legal work–considering that time is of the essence for practitioners, ChatGPT represents the potential for changes to traditional approaches to tasks such as drafting and revision of legal documents.
IMPLICATIONS
While ChatGPT’s capabilities as an artificial intelligence model possess a large amount of potential that could simplify and transform the current legal field, there are certainly implications to be considered–specifically, complications created by sourcing issues for generated content and the possibility of artificial intelligence replacing human lawyers.
Firstly, ChatGPT’s ability to generate sophisticated responses and content creates issues regarding copyright infringement and sourcing issues. In a case where two users enter the same query asking for ChatGPT to generate a paper on what constitutes reasonable suspicion, ChatGPT would likely respond with the same content, leading to both users submitting identical papers. As for sourcing issues, ChatGPT doesn’t inherently create sourcing issues, but rather, inappropriate usage or complete reliance upon any generated content does. For example, in the same case as above, where two users completely rely on ChatGPT’s generation of a paper without verifying or reviewing the content produced, the generated content has the possibility of containing inaccuracies, errors, or biases, for reasons such as its limited knowledge of the world and events past 2021.
Secondly, ChatGPT’s extensive knowledge of legal subjects raises the question of whether artificial intelligence would be able to replace lawyers in the future. University of Minnesota Law School professors Jonathan Choi, Kristin Hickman, Amy Monahan, and Daniel Schwarcz conducted an experiment to test ChatGPT’s performance on law school exams; the findings showed that as a law school student, ChatGPT would be able to pass all four courses with the exam grades it received (albeit on academic probation), but more importantly, would be able to graduate law school successfully if such performance were to remain consistent. While ChatGPT is currently unable to consistently pass the bar exam, what remains notable is that ChatGPT has not undergone any semblance of training or exposure to legal materials and sources, meaning that in the future, it may be able to pass the bar exam as OpenAI continues to develop ChatGPT’s algorithms. While this has raised concerns on whether artificial intelligence like ChatGPT will be able to replace lawyers, experts have cited that ChatGPT, as an artificial intelligence system, fails to meet the thresholds for understanding and judgment required of licensed practitioners. Even when answering whether it is capable of replacing lawyers, ChatGPT responds that it cannot, as “it is not a substitute for the knowledge and experience of a trained and licensed lawyer” and cites a trained legal professional’s knowledge, experience, and ethical obligations as prime reasons as to why ChatGPT and other AI technologies can only be of assistance or support to legal practitioners.
ChatGPT is a resource that will undoubtedly revolutionize the work and methods of legal professionals and the field itself. However, considering the technical and ethical issues that such usage may cause, experts are actively researching and developing ways that law students and lawyers alike may utilize ChatGPT in ethical, efficient methods.