Thought-provoking Things Worth Sharing - Issue #141
There's a lot of talk about AI in legal, but can you show your work?
I’ll have much more on AI. It is impossible to miss stories about AI, let alone deal with all the hype in my day job. If I’m being honest, it feels overwhelming. In the legal industry, I think this headline shows the issue many of us are having:
I feel the frustration.
Welcome to this week’s collection of thought-provoking things. Each week, 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.
There’s a lot of talk about AI and how it will change the world, how efficient it helps people be, and even some generic advice for writing prompts. However, there is little evidence of legal professionals working with Generative AI tools. That’s what Stephen is seeing at legal tech conferences. I see the same thing online. There is a lot of talk about risks, mitigating them, what an LLM is, how they work, etc.
Where are the use cases for legal? More importantly, where is the business case where Generative AI = increased revenue for firms? That’s missing. I’ve seen some promises of legal work requiring less time, but with an industry that often bills by the hour, I’m not sure that’s a business case. Has anyone genuinely proven that legal professionals are getting more done thanks to Generative AI tools?
Have you also been disappointed by the lack of real-world demonstrations by lawyers of how they use AI to be more productive? Or have you seen them?
Careers and the Workplace
I’ve worked at companies like this. “You did a fantastic job this year; we rated you three out of five.”
“Wait, so a C?”
“No, meets expectations.”
“Yeah, so mediocre?”
“No, we expect all of our employees to be fantastic.”
“Then who gets four or five?”
“……….”
“It’s important to not think of this as a three out of five grade so much.”
It is not exactly the same conversation as this one, but it is close:
You might as well use the tools available - Using AI as a Career Coach
Training and Development
L&D Strategies for Addressing the Tech Skills Gap - the tech skills gap is an ever-moving target. Every year you sit in a job, not learning something new, is a year you fall behind on all the new skills you’re going to need. As a manager, you can’t afford to not stay on top of development.
Mental Health in the Workplace
On her Brilliant Legal Mind blog, Claire Parsons has started a series called Attorney Mental Health Profiles in Courage. The first two are worth your time to read:
Interview with Lawyer, Tech Leader Colin Levy about Mental Health
Interview with Lawyer and Attempted Suicide Survivor Bruce Simpson
I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.
This is an interesting look at what AI chatbots might be able to do in terms of interacting with people who might be lonely. I’m not convinced this is a solution, but seeing how people interact with new technology is always interesting. - The teens making friends with AI chatbots.
Mental health days: do they work? - It seems to be, maybe. Offering them in isolation may not do much, but they can be beneficial.
Privacy, Security, and Legal Tech
Following up on the opening, some more on legal and AI, including Jordan’s take on billable hours, which includes a nod to the change that AI could bring:
And some help with prompting aimed at the legal profession:
We know this is happening - Generative AI Is Supercharging Scams (Here's How and What to Look Out For)
The first of many confusing state regulations that will make all the various privacy regulations look like child’s play - Colorado Passes AI Regulation
If you missed the news about ChatGPT-4o - ChatGPT's New GPT-4o AI Model Is Better at Talking and Speaking.
Microsoft's Previous Commitments On Emissions Took a Back Seat to AI—In previous issues, I shared articles about the environmental impacts and energy demand of AI processing. Microsoft committed to being carbon-negative by 2030, but they’ve been heading in the opposite direction.
Poor information management is bad for AI and eDiscovery - Today, eDiscovery Begins Before the Case Is Ever Filed.
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.