A few months back I presented with Jennifer Leonard on AI to the Conference of Chief Justices/Conference of State Court Administrators Midwest Regional Meeting. During my remarks I warned that we are already in, and will soon be even deeper into, a Sea of Junk. AI generated garbage that looks credible and helpful, but isn’t.
After, as is tradition with these sorts of meetings, Danielle Hirsch and I went wandering. In a tater tot fueled debrief, we thought, this is a Tiny Chat. Danielle mentioned her love of Storyline Online, the SAG-AFTRA series where actors read their favorite children's books, and we started writing. The line that I’m most proud of, and that I think is the crux of what we are trying to get across, is: “In a Sea of Junk, people will grab on to anything that looks like a life raft.”
If someone has to use the courts to get divorced, navigate a custody dispute, contest a debt claim, or any of the other dozens of case types where most people have to go it alone without a lawyer, they’re going to go looking for help. And they’re not trained lawyers, they’re under stress, and the court processes are unfamiliar and complicated. If something sounds right, looks right, appears authoritative, then they’re going to grab hold. AI can very quickly generate a lot of almost right (wrong) things.
Look closely at the graphics in this Tiny Chat. They too aren’t quite right. People have extra limbs. Faces are distorted. Animations are weird. I made it using AI, and while I might not have been able to do this without that help, is this what people deserve when it comes to legal information? Shouldn’t the courts and the legal community do everything they can to win the war for credibility and people’s attention? Shouldn't we meet people where they are, give them tailored legal information, build in procedural safeguards, and make sure our stuff rises to the top?
We think so, and we’ve done lots of things we think can help: www.ncsc.org/a2j. And the Tiny Chat lays out some more ideas. But we’re going to need to work on this together. Do you have ideas? Want some help? Please reach out. Boats don’t build themselves.
Here it is: Sea of Junk https://lnkd.in/eYF6Qbi3
Chartered (UK) and European Patent Attorney; Engineering, AI/ML, Digital & Data IP Specialist
7moThanks for sharing Matt.