It’s the tool everyone is talking about: ChatGPT.
This content creating platform from tech firm Open AI has been causing quite a stir across the legal and higher education spaces. While the AI technology behind ChatGPT can be helpful in certain workplace and learning situations, it also raises questions around topics of accuracy, plagiarism, and credibility.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an AI-powered language model that can generate human-like text – such as a paper or brief – that could potentially be as accurate and coherent as a piece of work an individual could create on their own. (Note that the current output of ChatGPT is hit or miss, but the quality is very likely to improve.)
The Debate
Depending on your point of view – and the industry you serve – this technology has its pros and cons. In this Forbes article, one source mentioned the potential for students with learning disabilities or those who speak English as a second language to use ChatGPT for breaking down complicated reading materials. At the same time, schools across the board have concerns about AI’s ability to short-circuit the learning process and to facilitate cheating and plagiarism.
For the MSL, this tool puts both instructors and students at a crossroads. On the one hand, ChatGPT (and similar platforms) are here to stay, and this topic is a hugely interesting case study that implicates the MSL’s core concept: adjusting to technology and understanding how technological developments intersect with law and business.
On the other hand, the rapid development of generative AI raises concerns with faculty and staff about the learning process, independent thinking, and assessment activities. If the goal is to teach fundamental reasoning skills, can that really be accomplished if students can produce a decently well-reasoned argument with the push of a button?
Professor Daniel Linna, who teaches Assessing AI & Computational Technologies and leads the Innovation Lab for MSL students, addressed these issues in an article for Reuters:
… Linna, director of law and technology initiatives at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, said most law professors thinking about language-based AI are concerned with students passing off work generated by the chatbot as their own. But others see AI as a tool for legal education, and warn that without it law students may be unprepared for legal careers in which technology will play ever larger roles.”
At the same time, Linna noted in an article for Business Insider, that while “tools like this have potential,” they don’t deliver solutions for every situation. “It’s not magic,” he said.
The Takeaway from AI Chat Tools
Just as with many other tech developments, these tools are likely to continue to improve, and probably very quickly. As the implications of this shake out, organizations must work hard to get in gear and develop policies that can adapt to and incorporate these powerful new tools.
