Thought-provoking Things Worth Sharing - Issue #143
New section on AI and a judge recommends using it.
With the move to every-other-week publishing, I have added a new section for news about AI. Let’s face it: there is so much news and commentary about AI that it’s impossible to include it in the Privacy, Security, and Legal Tech section without drowning out everything else. So, welcome to the new world where AI news makes all of us adjust our lives to deal with the firehose of information.
Speaking of AI, I’ve seen a lot of folks in the legal world talking about this article:
11th Circuit Judge Uses ChatGPT in Deciding Appeal, Encourages Others to Consider It
Welcome to this week’s collection of thought-provoking things. For each issue, I’ll share information about careers and workplace culture, mental health in the workplace, talent development, and important information about privacy, security, and legal tech.
You can find out all about me here - Mike McBride Online.
Of course, it’s big news because new technology is always a bit touch-and-go with lawyers. We’ve seen court filings with hallucinated citations, which struck some fear into lawyers when it comes to trusting the results from Generative AI. Having a judge encourage the industry to use AI to help them work more efficiently is good. It’s not perfect, and lawyers will need to vet the responses using their expertise, but it’s also not something to be afraid of.
What do you think about the current state of AI in law? It’s early, but are we getting beyond the fear, uncertainty, and doubt stage?
Careers and the Workplace
Linked - Things ain't working like they used to!
Consider all of the societal and technological changes over the last ten years. Why do we think a concept born in the early 1900s is still appropriate for office work? Why can't we change it to something more befitting our times? We have the technology to do much of our work from anywhere, to meet remotely, and to communicate in dozens of different ways, yet we still think going to an office 3-5 days a week is the only way to work.
Of course, if you need a job to keep a roof over your head and food on your table, these questions aren’t as important, but if you are choosing, this can help avoid a poor outcome. - 6 Crucial Questions to Ask Yourself Before Accepting a Job Offer.
I’ll admit that I had never considered some of these tips, and I’m not 100% sure about a couple of them, but getting a photo of me speaking is something I should have considered a long time ago. 10 Public Speaking Tips for Your Next Business Presentation.
Training and Development
This is an interesting review of Adam Grant’s latest book from a training perspective. - Hidden Potential Summary: Implications for L&D.
The struggle to advocate for training is real. I’ve been there. - Advocating for L&D in the Workplace
Mental Health in the Workplace
It’s time to stop mental health discrimination at work.
‘A while after returning from my mental health leave,’ she says, ‘I got a concussion for which I needed partial leave. The symptoms I had were so similar to my PTSD but, in contrast to my mental illness, my concussion was immediately accommodated with a 90-day medical leave and temporary part-time work schedule without any stigma.’
Artificial Intelligence
Using AI might be risky. Lawyers, rightfully, are concerned about those risks, not the least of which is having fewer billable hours. But will clients wait for firms to figure it out? - Solo and Small Firms Plan to Adopt AI More Quickly than Larger Firms, But Not Fast Enough for Clients, Clio Survey Finds.
Linked - Law Firms Start Training Summer Associates on Using Generative AI
I've been saying this to anyone who will listen to me rant about it. Your IT or Training and Development teams can only go so far when it comes to training for AI. We can do some training around prompting, show them where to click to enter a prompt, and even show them how to integrate the AI responses into their work.
Training on AI should start with prompts. - Prompt Engineering: What Is It, Why It's Important, and Is It Obsolete?
This is a thoughtful look at a huge problem: How AI Will Change Democracy.
Speaking of problems - Academic: AI Will Increase the Quantity — and Quality — of Phishing Scams
Privacy, Security, and Legal Tech
This week, I marked the first anniversary of starting my M365 newsletter. This is an excellent time to remind folks how to get paid subscriptions by recommending the newsletter to friends and coworkers.
This has been going on for a long time. To say the legal industry needs to change is maybe the biggest understatement I’ve ever made. It won’t change until some big-name lawyers are punished, which hasn’t happened meaningfully yet. Alleged sexual misconduct by lawyers isn't uncommon, but facing punishment is tricky.
More on an ongoing topic. - Six Myths About Hyperlinked Documents
That didn’t take long - This Hacker Tool Extracts All the Data Collected by Windows’ New Recall AI. Microsoft seems to have considered the data safe because the drive is encrypted with Bitlocker, ignoring the possibility that someone could infiltrate a Windows machine while the user is logged in. Which they can. Those screenshots could be an issue for many.
Oh look, another state with a new privacy law - While You Were Sleeping, Vermont Passed One of the Most Stringent State Consumer Privacy Laws Yet.
That’s all, folks. If you found something interesting in this week’s newsletter, please share it with your friends. It’s the best way to help support the effort I put in each week to share this with you.