AI in the Legal Arena: Charting a Course Through Ethical Challenges and Regulatory Waves

As with any new technology, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into legal and business strategies presents both opportunities and challenges. During a recent webinar sponsored by Exterro and Today’s General Counsel, Jonathan D. Yellin, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Charles River Associates, shed light on the delicate balance between value creation and risk management, particularly in the context of emerging cybersecurity disclosure requirements, with the use of AI in legal.

Balancing Act

Yellin’s insights highlight the importance of finding a balance between utilizing the advantages of new technologies and managing the associated risks. With board oversight and stricter cybersecurity disclosure requirements, the challenge is to align the goals of creating value with the necessity of mitigating risks. For the general counsel, this presents a critical dilemma that requires a nuanced understanding of the opportunities and pitfalls associated with AI.

Yellin explains the challenge, saying, “My job is to try to mitigate – we cannot remove or prevent all – but mitigate the increased risk for litigation when using new tools and technology.”

The AI Development Life Cycle

Christy S. Hawkins, a partner at Akerman LLP, highlighted the importance of defining clear goals, selecting relevant data, and crafting precise instructions to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges associated with AI. These initial steps are crucial in laying the foundation for the development process and setting the trajectory for the AI model.

The critical stage of data collection and analysis involves making decisions about the data universe, its features, and the elimination of irrelevant or inappropriate information. Hawkins pointed out the potential bias in AI models, drawing attention to the importance of addressing issues related to discrimination and transparency.

The subsequent steps involve algorithm development, training the model, and evaluating its performance. Hawkins emphasized the need for ongoing monitoring and refinement, highlighting the dynamic nature of AI models.

Key Takeaways:

• The emergence of AI technologies has led to the creation of regulatory frameworks that aim to address the challenges posed by these technologies in the legal landscape.
• Privacy concerns arise during data collection and processing.
• Legal professionals using AI tools must understand their functioning and limitations.
• Risks associated with AI include privacy, unintentional release of confidential information, IP infringement, bias, transparency, and accuracy.
• Examples of AI gone wrong highlight the potential legal and ethical consequences.
• Emerging issues in generative AI include confidentiality risks, discrimination in HR decision-making, and ethical obligations.

Read more about AI’s adoption into legal at Today’s General Counsel:

Identifying Legal Use Cases for Generative AI

Data Privacy and Reputation Concerns About Adopting AI

Register and listen to a recording of the webinar here.