In late 2022, ChatGPT made its entrance. The arrival of the artificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbot stormed the world and has not subsided to this day. On the contrary, ChatGPT promises to evolve and support us in increasingly more ways in our daily lives. Having observed the rise of this intelligent chatbot for several months, the legal platform Mr. surveyed lawyers and experts in the legal field. How should lawyers relate to ChatGPT? Evert Stamhuis, Professor of Law and Innovation at Erasmus School of Law, was also interviewed in the June issue of Mr. According to Stamhuis, it is not a question of whether the legal sector should embrace ChatGPT, but how.
The survey revealed that generative AI based on large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, offers great potential and can facilitate legal work. ChatGPT can be particularly helpful in fact-finding and text translation. However, caution is advised in using the tool. ChatGPT lacks context understanding, and its source attribution is limited and sometimes irrelevant. Instead of being a substitute, the tool is better seen as a complementary resource: a way to offer the services of lawyers more efficiently and affordably.
A critically constructive attitude
Stamhuis also sees value in the application of ChatGPT in the legal and academic world, primarily when the tool is used as a "writing assistant" to provide an initial draft on legal situations that have frequently occurred in the past. He puts the rise of technology and concerns about it into perspective by referring to the changing times. "A legal library was already an instrument to support the study of primary legal sources, with a key role for the expert librarian," he tells Mr. Library skills have now evolved into database skills. According to Stamhuis, a new era brings new tools.
Ignoring or excluding it is pointless, according to the Professor of Law and Innovation. Instead, Stamhuis advocates an open but careful approach: "Legal tech presents us as educators with the wonderful challenge of fostering a critically constructive attitude among students." He believes it is crucial for students to get a glimpse "under the hood" of the chatbot. Currently, this is impossible as it is in the hands of the tech giant OpenAI. Therefore, Stamhuis is presently involved in developing his own LLM - the Erasmian Language Model - which will play a role in the Master's program in Law & Technology and the AI & Societal Impact minor.
It takes two to tango
ChatGPT can be valuable in the legal (academic) sector if one remains critical and transparent, protecting originality and uniqueness in work. For Stamhuis, this means that journal editors, peer reviewers, publishers, authors, and knowledge institutions must carefully discuss the use of technology when writing scientific articles. The methodological section of publications should also allow for openness about using ChatGPT, just as publishers currently have to be transparent about using databases and search terms.
While Stamhuis believes that an ongoing societal debate about GPT technology is necessary, he considers it his "wonderful mission" to educate today's students to become tech-savvy lawyers of the future. These lawyers are technologically proficient and understand the value of fundamental rights and the rule of law in changing times. According to Stamhuis, we must not let our concerns paralyse us. Lawyers must recognise the advent of AI, but digitisation also shows how indispensable skilled human lawyers are.
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Click here for the article in Mr (in Dutch).
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