ChatGPT 和律師事務(wù)所內(nèi)的生成式人工智能

ThomsonReutersInstitute

ChatGPTandGenerativeAIwithinLawFirms

Lawfirmsseepotential,eyepracticalusecasesandmoreknowledgearoundrisks

ChatGPTandGenerativeAIwithinLawFirms2

ChatGPT&GenerativeAIwithinLawFirms:Lawfirmsseepotential,eyepracticalusecasesandmoreknowledgearoundrisks

RoughlysixmonthsafterOpenAIunveiledtheChatGPTprototypeforpublicuse,manylawyersintheU.S.,U.K.,andCanadaarealreadyawareofthetoolandwhatitcando.Manyhaveevenexperimentedwiththeapplicationandhavepinpointedpotentialusecaseswithintheirownwork,withmorethanthree-quarterssayingtheybelievethatChatGPTanditsoverarchingtechnology,generativeartificialintelligence(AI),canbereadilyappliedtolegal

work,andmorethanhalfsayingthatitshouldbe.

Andyetthereremainsseveralunknowns,withmanyfirmsstillconsideringhowthoseusecasesshouldbeappliedtodailyworkandhowfirmscanbestmitigatethetool’saccuracyandprivacyrisks.AndparticularlyasthegenerativeAIandChatGPTtechnologyremainsinitsearlystages,it’slikelythatattitudeswillchangerapidlyasnewtechnologicalbreakthroughs

andusecasesareintroduced.

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ChatGPTandGenerativeAIwithinLawFirms

3

Executivesummary

Toshedfurtherlightonthis,theThomsonReutersInstitutehasconductedresearcharoundattitudestowardsgenerativeAIandChatGPTwithinlawfirms,measuringawarenessandadoptionofthetechnologyaswellasviewsonitspotentialrisks.Oursurveyresearch,summarizedanddistilledinthisreport,indicatesthatavastmajorityoflawyersandlawfirmprofessionalsareawareofgenerativeAIandChatGPT,andamajoritybelieveitshould

beusedforlegalwork.

“Withinthenextsixmonthseverybodyatthefirmwillbeusingit,”saidCharlotteWoolven-Brown,HeadofEmploymentandaPartneratlawfirmSternbergReedintheUnitedKingdom.“Andthere’sabsolutelynowayyou’regoingtostopthat,becausepeoplewillget

moreintunewithwhat’shappeningandhowquicklythistechnologyisdeveloping.”

Yet,manylawfirmsareeyeingpotentialrisksofthetechnologyandareseekingmoreinformation

aroundhowgenerativeAIfunctionsandhowitusesdatainputs.Somerespondentssoughtknowledgeonthetools’perceivedlevelofaccuracyandthepotentialfor“hallucinations”ofmadeupfacts,whileothersinvokedprivacyconcernsaroundhowconfidentialdatawouldbeused.Someevenraised

ethicalobjectionstotheoveralluseofgenerativeAI

“Withinthenextsixmonthseverybodyatthefirmwillbeusingit.”

–CharlotteWoolven-Brown,Headofemployment,PartneratU.K.lawfirmSternbergReed

forlegalworkatall,believingattorneys“areguidedbyethicalrulesthattakeheartfelt

understandingthatsimplycannotbeprogrammedbyalgorithm.”

TheresultofallthisevolvingtechnologicalchangeisalawfirmworldthathaspositiveinclinationstowardsgenerativeAIbutisstillseekingitsplacewithinthefirm:Althoughmanyagreethatitcanandperhapsshouldbeusedforlegalwork,roughly5%ofsurveyrespondentsareactuallyusinggenerativeAIrightnoworhavefirm-wideplanstointroducegenerativeAI.Andintheinterim,whileaboutone-thirdsaidtheywerestillconsideringwhetherornottousegenerativeAIforfirmoperations,somearetakingaconservativeapproach:About15%ofrespondentssaidtheirfirmshavewarnedemployeesagainstunauthorizedgenerativeAIuseatwork,with6%sayingtheirfirmshavebanned

unauthorizedusageoutright.

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ChatGPTandGenerativeAIwithinLawFirms4

Takeawaysofthereport

OursurveyresearchrevealedseveralkeyfindingsthatdeservespecialattentionfromlawfirmleadersandotherlegalprofessionalsasChatGPTandgenerativeAIevolvefromconcept

torealityforthevastmajorityofthelegalindustryparticipants.

EvolvingattitudesaroundChatGPT—WhilealmosteverybodywesurveyedhadheardofChatGPTandgenerativeAI,morethan80%respondentssaidtherearewaysthatthenewtechnologycanbeappliedtolegalwork.However,thatpercentagefelltojustmorethanhalf

ofrespondentswhentheywereaskediftheybelieveditshouldbeappliedtolegalwork.

JasonAdaska,DirectoroftheInnovationLabatU.S.lawfirmHolland&Hart,saidheisfindingasimilarshiftinattitudesamongthoseatthefirm.“ThebiggestdeltaI’veseenisjustpeopleunderstandingthattherealmofthepossiblehassortofshiftedinamonumentalway,”heexplained,addingthatthismeansgenerativeAIeducationhasbecomecritical.“Thisisactuallythemostimportantthingforus,strategicallythemostimportantthingfor

thefirmandourdepartment,istoputresourcesoutthere.”

Takingacautious,yethands-onapproach—CurrentuseofgenerativeAIorChatGPTforlawfirmoperationsisrare,withjust3%ofrespondentssayingitiscurrentlybeingusedattheirfirms;andaboutone-thirdofrespondentsareconsideringitsuse.Interestingly,6-in-10respondentssaidtheirfirmshavenocurrentplansforgenerativeAIuse

intheiroperations.

“ThebiggestdeltaI’veseenisjustpeopleunderstandingthattherealmofthepossiblehassortofshiftedinamonumentalway.”

–JasonAdaska,DirectoroftheInnovationLabatU.S.lawfirmHolland&Hart

Giventhis,it’snotsurprisingthatsomefirmsare

takingamorecautiousapproachtounderstanding

generativeAI,evenwhileremainingmoreproactiveasopposedtoothertechnologiesthatlawfirmsmighthavewaiteduntilfurtherinthedevelopmentcycletoexplore.“Inthiscase,we’retalkingaboutpotentialtenfoldchange.So,theorderofmagnitudeisdifferent,andIthinkthat’swhyit’scatchingmoreattentionthanalltheothertechnologiesthatweremoreincremental,”saidArsenShirokov,NationalDirector,InformationTechnologyatCanadian

lawfirmMcMillan.

“Astheybecomeavailable,wewanttobeablenottojustsay,here’sanothernewsarticleandanothertechnologyvendorannouncedaproduct,it’sjustAI.Wewanttosay,this

productactuallysolvesthis,this,andthat,andthenmapittousecases.”

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ChatGPTandGenerativeAIwithinLawFirms5

Growingawarenessoftherisksofuseandnon-use—Thereremainsseveralunknowns,particularlyasitrelatestopotentialChatGPTadoptionandhowgenerativeAIwouldfitintoafirm’sriskprofile.Indeed,concernsvoicedinoursurveyseemedtorevolvearoundthetechnology’saccuracyandsecurity,withworriesoverhowprimarylawfirmsconcernsofprivacyandclientconfidentialitywillbeaddressed.Perhapsnotsurprisingly,aboutone-thirdoffirmssurveyedsaidtheyarestillweighingwhetherornottheywanttoapplygenerative

AItofirmoperationsatall.Aboutthesamenumberreportedbeingunsureabouttheirfirm’s

approachtogenerativeAIrisks.

“Idon’tknowifthere’sanybodyoutthereintheworldrightnowthatactuallyhasagoodsenseofwhattheboundariesareofwhatitcandowellandwhatitcan’tdowell,”said

Holland&Hart’sAdaska.

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Methodology

TheThomsonReutersInstituteconductedtheresearchforthisreportbysendinginvitationstoanonlinesurveytomidsizeandlargelawfirms,alongwithlawfirmmembersoftheThomsonReutersInfluencerCoalitionpanel,locatedintheUnitedStates,UnitedKingdom,andCanada.Therewere443applicablesurveyrespondentsbetweenMarch21and31,2023.

Oftheserespondents,62%werefrommidsizelawfirms(between30and

attorneys);andtheremaining38%werefromlargelawfirms(morethan

attorneys),with17%oftotalrespondentsfromfirmswithmorethan500attorneys.ThemajorityoftherespondentswerefromtheU.S.(63%),with23%ofrespondentsfromtheU.K.,and14%fromCanada.

Therespondents’jobtitleswereroughlysplitbetweenpartners/managingpartners(34%),associates(30%),andotherlawyers(26%).Theremaining11%ofrespondentsweresplitbetweenparalegals,lawlibrarians,C-suite/executiveleadership,andIT/technologymanagement.

Thoserespondentscompletingthesurveywerealsoaskedselectedopen-endedquestionsconcerningtheiropinionsaroundwhygenerativeAIshouldorshouldnotbeusedforlegalwork,aswellasthepotentialrisksofgenerativeAI,andiftheybelievedthoserisksexisted.TheThomsonReutersInstitutealsoconductedadditionalqualitativeinterviewstofurtherfleshoutgenerativeAIbeliefsinadditiontothesurveyresponses.

ChatGPTandGenerativeAIwithinLawFirms6

Background

GenerativeAI—thealgorithmsthatareusedtocreatenewcontentsuchasimages,videos,audio,text,and3Dmodels—arenotawhollynewconcept.A2018papertitledImprovingLanguageUnderstandingbyGenerativePre-Training1proposedthegenerativepre-training(GPT)modelofcreatingnewtextbyproposingthenextwordinaseries.Thatsameyear,theBidirectionalEncoderRepresentationsfromTransformers(BERT)2reportproposedasimilartext-generationmethodbypredictingwordsfoundinthemiddleofasequence.In

theensuingyears,researchersaroundtheworldworkedtomakegenerativeAImodelsmore

accurateandmoreconversantinplainlanguage.

Withinthepastsixmonths,however,publicperceptionofgenerativeAIapplicationshasskyrocketed.InlargepartthisisduetothepublicavailabilityoftheChatGPTapplication,createdbyresearchlaboratoryOpenAI.OriginallylaunchedinNovember2022,ChatGPTallowedmembersofthegeneralpublictoexperimentwithgenerativeAItools,givingtheapplicationpromptstogeneratecontentacrossawholehostofknowledgedisciplines,whichwouldthenprovideanswersinplaintext.ChatGPTwasoriginallybuiltontheGPT-3.5

familyoflargelanguagemodelsandhassincebeenupgradedtoGPT-4forpaidsubscribers,

providinganewlevelofaccuracytothetool.

WithChatGPT’srelease,andwithcompaniessuchasMicrosoftandGoogleintroducingtheirowngenerativeAItoolsforpublicuse,thelegalindustryhasbegunponderingitsownusecasesforgenerativeAI.Withideasrangingfromdocumentgenerationandreview,tolegalresearchandknowledgerepositories,tochatbotandhelpdeskapplications,itseemsthateveryaspectofthelegalexperiencecouldbeimpacted.Evenwiththetechnology’srelatively

recentrise,somelawfirmsarealreadyconsideringadoptionofgenerativeAItools.

ImprovingLanguageUnderstandingbyGenerativePre-Training,OpenAI(AlecRadford,KarthikNarasimhan,TimSalimans,andIlyaSutskever);published2018;availableat:/research-covers/language-unsupervised/language_understanding_paper.pdf.

BERT:Pre-trainingofDeepBidirectionalTransformersforLanguageUnderstanding,CornellUniversity(JacobDevlin,Ming-WeiChang,KentonLee,andKristinaToutanova);publishedMay2019;availableat:/pdf/1810.04805.pdf.

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ChatGPTandGenerativeAIwithinLawFirms7

EvolvingattitudesaroundChatGPTandgenerativeAI

Ingeneral,thelegalprofessionishighlyawareofgenerativeAIandChatGPT.Afull91%ofoursurveyrespondentsindicatedtheyhadheardoforreadaboutgenerativeAIorChatGPT,including93%ofrespondentsfromlargelawfirmsand90%ofrespondentsfrommidsizelawfirms.Thosefiguresalsovariedslightlybygeography:Canada(97%)registeredthehighest

rateofgenerativeAI/ChatGPTrecognition,whiletheU.K.(86%)registeredthelowest.

McMillan’sShirokovnotedthatthistechnologyseemstohavecaughtlawfirms’collectiveconsciousnesslikefewotherstechnologiesbeforeit,especiallygiventhetypeofwork

itperforms.“Itdefinitelycaughtmuchmoreattentionthanprettymuchalltheothertechnology-relatedbreakthroughsthathappenedinthelast20years,”hesaid.“Likewhencloudhappened,thelawyersjustsaid,‘Yeah,westillworkthesameway.’Butthisone,

justbecausetheresultofthetechnologydirectlycompeteswiththeresultofwhatlawyers

produce,Ithinkitdefinitelygottheirattention.”

JessicaLipson,PartnerandCo-ChairoftheTechnology,Data&IPDepartmentatU.S.lawfirmMorrisonCohen,addedthatsheisreceivingmorequestionsaboutlegaltechnologiesthaneverbefore,largelyduetothepublicinterestingenerativeAI’sdevelopment.“Aseverybody’sreadingaboutChatGPTandBardandallthesethingsonthenews,they’regettingcurious.They’resaying,‘Hey,couldweimplementsomeofthesetechnologies?’And,

ofcourse,yes,wecan—it’samatteroftimeandmoneytoimplementthem,butyes.”

Figure1:AttitudestowardsChatGPTandGenerativeAIforlegalwork

82105124

CanChatGPT/generativeAIbe

ShouldChatGPT/generativeAIbe

appliedtolegalwork?

appliedtolegalwork?

10%

25%

7%

82%

51%

Yes

YES

YES

No

24%

Don’tknow

Source:ThomsonReuters2023

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ChatGPTandGenerativeAIwithinLawFirms8

Inlargepart,thosewhowereawareofgenerativeAIorChatGPTfeltpositivelyaboutthetools’potentialuseinthelegalprofession.ThesurveyaskedseparatelywhethergenerativeAIorChatGPTcanbeappliedtolegalwork,andwhetheritshouldbeappliedtolegalwork.In

bothcases,morethanhalfofrespondentsansweredintheaffirmative.

Alargemajorityofrespondents(82%)answeredthatgenerativeAIorChatGPTcanbeappliedtolegalwork,afigurethatstayedroughlyconsistentregardlessofgeography,sizeoffirm,orjobtitle.Just7%saidthattheydidnotfeelgenerativeAIorChatGPTcouldbeapplied

tolegalwork,while10%ofrespondentssaidtheydidnotknowonewayortheother.

AskingwhethergenerativeAIorChatGPTshouldbeappliedtolegalwork,however,causedsomemoreskepticismanduncertainty.Justmorethanhalf(51%)ofsurveyrespondentswhohadheardofgenerativeAIorChatGPTsaidtheybelieveditshouldbeappliedtolegalwork.Theremainingrespondentswereroughlysplitbetweenthosewhodidnotbelieveitshouldbe

appliedtolegalwork(24%)andthosewhodidnotknoweitherway(25%).

Interestingly,attitudesastowhetherthesetoolsshouldbeappliedtolegalworkvariedbybothgeographyandbyjobtitle.RespondentsfromCanadafeltmorepositivelyabout

generativeAIandChatGPT,with62%sayingtheybelievethatthosetoolsshouldbeappliedtolegalwork,while15%saidtheybelievedtheyshouldnotbe.Ontheotherend,only41%of

U.K.respondentsfeltthetoolsshouldbeappliedtolegalwork.Thismaybelargelyduetouncertainty.Morethanone-third(34%)ofU.K.respondentssaidtheydidnotknowwhethergenerativeAIorChatGPTshouldbeappliedtolegalwork,morethan10percentagepoints

higherthanthoseintheU.S.orCanada.

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ChatGPTandGenerativeAIwithinLawFirms9

Worriesoveraccuracy,lossofpurpose

Interestingly,partnersandmanagingpartnersatlawfirmsgenerallyfeltmorepositivethanothertypesofattorneysthatgenerativeAIorChatGPTshouldbeappliedtolegalwork.Fully59%ofpartnersandmanagingpartnersfeltgenerativeAIshouldbeappliedtolegalwork,comparedwith52%ofassociatesand44%ofotherlawyerswithinfirms.

Figure2:AttitudestowardsChatGPTandGenerativeAIforlegalwork

ShouldChatGPT/generativeAIbeappliedtolegalwork?

Bycountry

Byjobtitle

Total

U.S.

U.K.

Canada

Total

Partner/managingpartner

Lawyer

Associate

51%

52%

51%

59%

Yes

Yes

41%

44%

62%

52%

24%

24%

26%

19%

No

No

25%

28%

15%

25%

25%

25%

22%

22%

28%

Don’tknow

Don’tknow

34%

23%

23%

Bycountry:U.S.n=257,U.K.n=88,Canadan=60.

Byjobtitle:Partner/managingpartnern=139,Lawyern=104,Associaten=123.

Source:ThomsonReuters2023

Fromhisownconversations,ShirokovatMcMillannotedthatmanyattorneys—andespeciallypartners—areinterestedinChatGPTandgenerativeAInotonlybecauseofthetools’technologicalcapabilitiesbutfortheirpotentialforcommodifyinglow-valuework.“[Lawyers]arenottypicallyexcitedaboutchangingtheirwaysordisruptingtheindustrythatway,butIthinklawyersultimatelydoseethisasanopportunitytoactuallypositivelychangetheirbusiness,especiallypartnership,”Shirokovnoted.“Partnersunderstandthebusiness

modelalittlebitmore.”

Holland&Hart’sAdaskaalsonotedthatthepublic-facingChatGPThasofferedsomethingthatpastlegaltechnologiesmayhavenot:achancetobehands-on.Thatfirst-personcontactcanshiftperspectives,hesaid.“Ithinkthat’sthestoryofthelastfewmonthsinthis,”Adaskaadded.“Thatanumberofpeoplewhomaybewouldhaveeithernotpaidattentionorhavebeenskepticalarebeingwonoverbyactuallytryingthingstheythoughtweren’tpossibleand

beingpleasantlysurprised.”

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ChatGPTandGenerativeAIwithinLawFirms10

Ontheotherhand,manysurveyrespondentswhofeltthatgenerativeAIorChatGPTshouldnotbeappliedtolegalworkfeltstronglyintheirviewpoints.SomefocusedonaccuracyissuesingenerativeAItools,withonerespondentwriting:“Rigorousfact-checkingwouldberequiredandthetimespentwouldlikelybesimilariftheworkhadbeenmanuallydone,

exceptwiththeincreasedriskthatsomethingmayslipthroughthereviewprocess.”

OtherswouldliketoseemoreoutofgenerativeAIinthefuture,suchasonerespondentwhosaid:“ItestedChatGPT4.0and,althoughtheresponsescansoundquiteconvincing,thesoftwarecompletelymisunderstoodtheholdingofacaseIspecificallyaskeditaboutandfabricatedcitationsandauthoritiesonagenerallegalquestion.Thesetoolsarejustnot

dependableyet.”

Further,anumberofrespondentswhosaidgenerativeAIshouldnotdolegaltaskswerealsofundamentallyopposedtohavingtechnologytackletaskshistoricallyperformedbyahuman.Onerespondentcalledtheidea“malpracticeandpracticinglawwithoutalicenseonitsface,”addingthatitwas“anaffronttothelegalprofession,whichisbasedontheintelligence,advocacy,andcompassionofhumanminds,forwhichacomputer,technology,orappcan

neverreplace.”

Otherresponsesmirroredthatsentiment,notingthat“l(fā)egalworkismorethanjustwords,”and“theclientrelationshipandunderstandingofaclient’sbusiness…cannotbereplicated.”

Anotheraddedthat“justiceisahumanfunctiontobeadministeredbyhumanbeings.”

Itisworthnoting,however,thatrespondentsfeltslightlybetteraboutusinggenerativeAIorChatGPTfornon-legalworkwithinalawfirm,suchasbasicquestion&answerservicesorotheradministrativetasks.Almostthree-fourths(72%)ofrespondentssaidtheyfeltthatgenerativeAIorChatGPTshouldbeappliedtonon-legalworkwithinafirm,21percentagepointshigherthanforlegalwork.Just7%answeredthattheyshouldnotbeappliedtonon-legalwork,while21%answeredthattheydidnotknow.Thesefindingstoowereroughly

consistentacrossfirmsize,geographies,andjobtitles.

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ChatGPTandGenerativeAIwithinLawFirms11

Takingaproactiveapproachtouseinlawfirmoperations

DespitealargenumberoflawfirmattorneysandprofessionalsbelievingthatgenerativeAIorChatGPTcanandshouldbeusedforlegalwork,adoptionofthesetoolsinlawfirmshaslargelynotyetbegun.Somefirmsarecurrentlyweighingwhetherornottousethesetoolsinfirmoperations,butamajorityofrespondentsindicatedtheyhavenoplanstousegenerativeAIin

firmoperationsatthiscurrenttime.

Overall,just3%ofrespondentssaidtheyarealreadyusinggenerativeAIorChatGPTforlawfirmoperations,andanadditional2%saidtheyareactivelyplanningforitsuse.Aboutone-thirdofrespondents(34%)arestillintheconsiderationphaseforgenerativeAIandChatGPT,

while60%answeredtheyhavenocurrentplansforgenerativeAIuseinfirmoperations.

Holland&Hartisoneofthosefirmsthatisactivelyplanningusecasesforitsoperations.Adaska,Directorofthefirm’sInnovationLab,notedthathisteamhasbeenexploringlargelanguagemodelsforyearsandiscurrentlyinan“experimentalphase”aroundgenerativeAI.“Myguessisthefirstcutofthisisgoingtobe,inthesamewaythataseniorattorneymayhaveanassociateprovideaninitialdraftandtheydosomeanalysisonit:‘Okay,Isthatgood?’”heexplained.“There’sprobablygoingtobeasimilarstepthat’sbeingdone,butnowsomeofthoseinputscome

fromagenerativemodel.”

Figure3:

PlannedChatGPTandGenerativeAIusagein

firmoperations

595

Use/plantouseChatGPT/

generativeAIforfirmoperations

5%

YES

(n=405)

MorrisonCohen’sLipson,meanwhile,isconsideringthequestion&answercapabilitiesof

thetool.“Ithinkitwouldbeagoodassistant,if

Source:ThomsonReuters2023

youwill,”shesaid.“Somebodytogiveyoualittlebitofguidance,alittlebitofinitialcontext.”

Andinsomecases,individualattorneysareadoptingthesetoolstoaidtheirownworkaswell.That’showSternbergReed’sWoolven-BrownbeganusinggenerativeAI,exploringpubliclyavailableoptionssuchasChatGPT.Now,shesaid,“I’vebeenusingitmoreforletters,

statements,allsortsofthings.I’musingitmorethanGoogle.”

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ChatGPTandGenerativeAIwithinLawFirms12

Usageratesvaryslightlybasedonfirmsize,geography,andjobtitle.Notsurprisingly,largelawfirmsweremorelikelytobeconsideringgenerativeAIthantheirmidsizecounterparts,with40%oflargelawfirmrespondentssayingtheywereconsideringthetechnologycompared

to31%atmidsizelawfirms.Largelawfirmswerealsoslightlymorelikelytobeusingthetechnologyalready,with5%oflargelawrespondentssayingsuchtoolswerealreadyinuse

comparedto2%atmidsizefirms.

Asolutionforstaffingproblems?

U.K.andCanadianfirmsmayalsobeaheadoftheadoptioncurvecomparedtotheir

U.S.counterparts,accordingtothesurvey.InboththeU.K.andCanada,9%oflawfirmrespondentssaidtheywereeitheralreadyusinggenerativeAIorplanningforitsuse,comparedto3%ofU.S.-basedfirms.Meanwhile,64%ofU.S.firmrespondentssaidtheyhavenoplansforgenerativeAIuseinfirmoperations,comparedwith59%ofU.K.firmsand48%ofCanadianfirms.

LawfirmpartnersormanagingpartnersalsoweremorelikelytobeexploringgenerativeAIusecomparedwithotherrolesinthefirm,particularlyassociates.Whileasimilarnumberof

respondentsacrossjobtitlesindicatedtheywereusinggenerativeAIcurrentlyorplannedtousegenerativeAI,40%partnerssaidtheywereconsideringwhetherornottousethetechnology—

12percentagepointshigherthanassociates.

Interestingly,morethantwo-thirds(67%)ofassociatessaidtheyhadnoplanstousegenerative

AI,comparedwith54%ofpartnersormanagingpartnerswhosaidthesame.

Figure4:PlannedChatGPTandGenerativeAIusagein?rmoperations

PlanstointegrateChatGPT/generativeAIinto?rm’soperations

Bylaw?rmsize

Byjobtitle

Total

Mediumlaw?rm

Largelaw?rm

Total

Partner/managingpartner

Lawyer

Associate

3%

3%

Wearealreadyusingfor?rmoperations

Alreadyusing

2%

4%

2%

3%

2%

1%

Weareplanningtousefor?rmoperations

Planningtouse

34%

Consideringwhetherornottouse

Weareconsideringwhetherornottousefor?rmoperations

40%

38%

28%

60%

60%

Rightnow,wehavenoplanstousefor?rmoperations

54%

Noplanstouse

66%

58%

52%

67%

Bylaw?rmsize:MLFn=248,LLFn=157.Byjobtitle:Partner/managingpartnern=139,Lawyern=104,Associaten=123.

Source:ThomsonReuters2023

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3%

2%

5%

2%

2%

3%

34%

31%

40%

ChatGPTandGenerativeAIwithinLawFirms13

ItisworthnotingthatsomeoftherespondentsmaybeatfirmsusinggenerativeAIorplanningtousegenerativeAIinusecasesoutsideoftheirpurview.AseparatequestionaskedrespondentswhethertheirfirmsusedotherformsofartificialintelligencebesidesgenerativeAIorChatGPT.Inthatcase,17%saidtheybelievedtheirfirmsusedotherformsofAI,58%saidtheirfirmsdidnotuseotherformsofAI,and24%saidtheydidnotknow.Midsize

lawfirmrespondentsinparticularsaidtheirfirmsdidnotuseAI,withjust9%answeringaffirmativelycomparedto69%reportingnousageand22%sayingtheydidnotknow.AmongthosewhorespondedthattheywereusingorplanningtouseChatGPTorgenerativeAIattheirfirms,knowledgeandbusinessoperationsfunctionswereparamount.Morethanhalfofthoserespondentscitedknowledgemanagementandbackofficefunctionsaspotentialusecases,whilebriefandmemodrafting,contractdrafting,andquestion&answeringservices

werementionedbymorethanone-thirdofthoserespondents.

ThesefiguresroughlytrackwithexternalsurveysonAIusewithinlawfirms,suchastheInternationalLegalTechnologyAssociation’s2022lawfirmtechnologysurvey3thatfound60%offirmswerenotpursuingAIormachinelearningoptions,andanadditional19%were

intheresearchphase.

Forsomemidsizefirmsinparticular,however,generativeAIcouldpresentauniquelypowerfulproposition.MorrisonCohenpartnerLipsonsaidthatduetogenerativeAI’s“intuitive”userinterfaceandthepotentialfordramaticallydecreasingthetimedoingrepetitivetasks,shebelievesmidsizefirmsmayeyegenerativeAIdifferentlythanother

artificialintelligence-poweredtechnologies.

“Westillhavethepeoplewithalltheskill,theexperience,theknowledge,andthewherewithaltohandle[complex]matters.So,it’snotthelackofknowledgeorskill,it’snotthequality

ofourlawyersthat’sholdingusback,it’sjustthevolumeofthem,”Lipsonsaid.“Onceyoutakeawaythatstaffinglimitation,whichIthinkcouldhappen—andit’snotgoingtohappentomorrow,butinanumberofyears,oncewehavefullyimplementedtechnologieslikethis—Ithinkitcouldreallyhelpusgohead-to-headwithotherfirms.Thesizeofthefirmwillbeless

importantthanwhoisinthatfirm.”

3InternationalLegalTechnologyAssociation’s2022TechnologySurvey,publishedSeptember2022;downloadaccessat:ht

tps://w

ww.ilt

/resources/

publications/surveys/ts22.

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ChatGPTandGenerativeAIwithinLawFirms14

Lawfirmseyingpotentialrisksofuseandnon-use

PerhapsoneofthemainreasonsforthediscrepancybetweengenerativeAI’spotentialutilityanditsactualadoptionisitsriskprofile.WhilegenerativeAIcanprovidepowerfulandalmostinstantaneouscontent,lawfirmlawyersandotherlegalprofessionalshaveanumberofquestionsarounditsaccuracy,handlingofconfidentialdata,andparticularlyinthecaseof

publictoolssuchasChatGPT,theownershipofprivatedataandthesecuri