AI & the Law: A Federal Courts Newsletter - August 28, 2024

Admissibility of Artificial Intelligence
New York Law Journal | August 22, 2024

As the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) increases, so does the likelihood of its role in both civil and criminal proceedings. While AI is often conceived of as a computer which can match or exceed a human’s performance in tasks requiring cognitive abilities, in fact it is just software. Software is generally admissible as evidence if it is relevant, material, and competent. However, AI differs from traditional software, perhaps requiring novel admissibility considerations.

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OpenAI Pushes Prompt-Hacking Defense to Deflect Copyright Claims
Bloomberg Law | August 29, 2024

OpenAI Inc. is making manipulation of ChatGPT central to its defense against a wave of copyright lawsuits from publishers and authors—accusing some of “prompt hacking” and seeking vast troves of documents to learn exactly what questions they fed into the artificial intelligence tool to yield the outputs underlying their claims.

 

Top Takeaways From the International Legal Technology Association Conference 2024
LegalTech News | August 28, 2024

While generative AI remained the topic du jour, the legal industry’s conversations have evolved, focusing on how the technology is poised to change the law firm market, e-discovery and legal tech as a whole.

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AFAs Will Grow as Firms Increase Gen AI Usage, New Survey Finds
New York Law Journal | August 28, 2024

A new report that surveyed 69 AmLaw 200 firms found that firms increasingly expect to use alternative fee arrangements in the coming years as a result of generative AI. As firms begin to use AI, however, there is a disconnect between them and their clients, according to the study. Respondents also thought that AI is still on the horizon and not a problem for the immediate future.

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Lawyer Who Used Flawed AI Case Citations Says Sanctions Unwarranted in Whistleblower Case
Reuters | August 27, 2024

A lawyer has asked a Virginia federal judge not to impose sanctions after he used incorrect case citations and quotes in a court filing, arguing the errors were unintentional and stemmed from "good-faith reliance" on artificial intelligence tools.

 

Generative AI Prompting for Lawyers (registration required)
Practical Law, The Journal | August 2024

Counsel using generative AI (GenAI) based on large language models (LLMs) should learn best practices for effective prompting to help streamline legal tasks and processes and mitigate the potential risks associated with the use of GenAI tools.

To learn more about generative AI prompting using just a Westlaw login, please see: Practical Law - Generative AI Prompting Considerations for Lawyers

 

Police Officers are Starting to Use AI Chatbots to Write Crime Reports. Will They Hold Up in Court?
ABC News | August 26, 2024

Oklahoma City's police department is one of a handful to experiment with AI chatbots to produce the first drafts of incident reports. Police officers who've tried it are enthused about the time-saving technology, while some prosecutors, police watchdogs and legal scholars have concerns about how it could alter a fundamental document in the criminal justice system that plays a role in who gets prosecuted or imprisoned.

 

When A.I.’s Output Is a Threat to A.I. Itself
New York Times | August 25, 2024

The internet is becoming awash in words and images generated by artificial intelligence. In reality, with no foolproof methods to detect this kind of content, much will simply remain undetected.

All this A.I.-generated information can make it harder for us to know what’s real. And it also poses a problem for A.I. companies. As they trawl the web for new data to train their next models on — an increasingly challenging task — they’re likely to ingest some of their own A.I.-generated content, creating an unintentional feedback loop in which what was once the output from one A.I. becomes the input for another.

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AI Copyright Trial’s Start Postponed for Thomson Reuters, Ross
Bloomberg Law | August 22, 2024

Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GmbH’s jury trial contesting copyright claims over material used in training artificial intelligence has been pushed back from its expected Friday start, with the Delaware federal judge inviting the parties to resubmit summary judgment motions.

The move, which postponed what would be the first jury trial to focus on copyright owner claims regarding generative AI models, marks the latest development in a years-long legal dispute that predates the recent rush of AI-related copyright litigation.