Last week, Legalweek was held New York City. It’s the annual legal tech Conference put on by ALM and directed at Biglaw and, sometimes, not so big. Lots of exhibitors, lots of parties, and fancy dinners. Glitz and glamour.
And this year, as you might expect, there are lots of educational sessions, discussions, and hard-core sales pitches around generative AI. There are predictions ad nauseam about how it will transform the legal profession. How it will let lawyers reduce the time they spend on mundane matters so they can spend more time contemplating life’s big problems for their clients. How Gen AI will take over the routine aspects of the practice and make everything great again.
Oh, there are a few references in the sales pitches to those pesky hallucinations and inaccuracies. But hey, you can deal with that by just being extra cautious. For sure, don’t worry about privacy and security, we got that covered. Just trust us. The pitches all include a solemn warning that the real dangers lie with the public-facing, inexpensive AI products like ChatGPT, not the vendors’ closed systems.
And yes, lawyers face other problems and pain points, but why try to solve those when we can sell our shiny new Gen AI programs?
What’s Not Being Talked About
But despite all the talk, there is one thing that the Gen AI titans never mention. Cost. Ask any Gen AI provider offering programs to assist with the substantive end of the practice like eDiscovery or legal research (as opposed to the back office or practice management end), and you get a lot of shrugs, hems and haws. Or some vague answer that depends on the user and whether they want to do it. I have been to plenty of pitches and about all I get
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