In the absence of formal regulation, lawyers and eDiscovery professionals must ensure they are prepared and develop effective strategies for identifying, validating, and integrating AI-generated content into the legal review and eDiscovery process.

AI has permeated various aspects of the legal field, from streamlining eDiscovery to supporting legal research. As AI technology continues to evolve, its ability to produce human-quality text is becoming increasingly refined. This inevitably raises the prospect of AI-generated information (AGI) entering legal reviews. In response to this emerging reality and the absence of formal regulation, lawyers and eDiscovery professionals must ensure they are prepared and develop effective strategies for identifying, validating, and integrating AI-generated content into the legal review and eDiscovery process.

Validation and Identification

As AI-generated content becomes increasingly prevalent, lawyers must be able to validate and identify it to ensure it is dealt with appropriately, for example, by measuring its authenticity and accuracy. AI-generated content can harbour the potential for misinformation due to its reliance on training data. If this data is biased or incomplete, AI systems may replicate these flaws, leading to inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and even outright falsehoods in their output. Somebody can intentionally instruct AI systems to produce false or misleading information, further exacerbating the issue. This can pose a significant risk to the integrity of legal proceedings and our trust in the legal system.

Lawyers may be able to locate AI-generated content by examining writing style, contextual relevance, and factual accuracy or by using AI detection tools, but these fields are nascent and will take time to develop. So, lawyers will need to find ways to effectively distinguish between human-generated and AI-generated content to ensure the integrity of legal documents, research materials, and other forms of information they encounter. In addition, lawyers will need to be aware of AI’s potential biases and limitations. AI algorithms are trained on data, and this data can reflect the biases of the people who created it. As a result, AI-generated information may not always be accurate or unbiased.

The implications of AI-generated information for the legal profession are significant. Lawyers will need to learn how to assess and review material that humans do not directly generate. This will require new skills, training, and a new way of thinking about the legal review process.

Integrating AI into Legal Review

Despite the challenges posed by AI-generated information, AI can enhance our ability to conduct legal reviews, but when companies use AI to harvest data, several legal and review implications need to be considered. Companies must ensure that their AI systems comply with data privacy laws and regulations. They also need to have processes in place to review and audit the data harvested by their AI systems. In the event of a dispute, companies may be required to disclose the data that was gathered by their AI systems. This can be a challenge, as it can be difficult to trace how data was used by an AI system. Companies may also be required to prove that their AI systems were used fairly and impartially.

Preparing for the Future

The European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act has set new global standards for responsible AI development to uphold privacy, data protection, and ethical principles while fostering innovation in cybersecurity, information governance, and eDiscovery. But while we wait for those regulations to come into force and for other national Governments to act, lawyers who can adapt to the changing landscape will be well-positioned to succeed. Here are some steps that law firms can take to prepare for the future of AI-generated information:

• Educate themselves about AI. Lawyers need to understand the basics of AI, including how it works and what its potential applications are.
• Invest in AI training. Law firms should train their lawyers to use AI tools and assess and review AI-generated information.
• Develop AI-driven processes. Law firms can use AI to automate many of the tasks involved in legal reviews, freeing lawyers to focus on more strategic work.
• Implement data privacy policies. Law firms must have data privacy policies to ensure that their AI systems comply with privacy laws and regulations.
• Review and audit AI systems. Law firms should have processes in place to review and audit the data that is harvested by their AI systems.

By taking these steps, law firms can prepare for the future of AI-generated information and position themselves for success in the future.

⁤This article first appeared in Legaltech News on January 22, 2024.