<![CDATA[I do not use AI in my legal work.]]>I do not use AI in my legal work.

Some of my clients use AI.

I saw an AI output this morning, purporting to give information about data protection law (whether an IP address is personal data).

It included two cases, which do not exist. It did not include any case law which does exist. It gave no warning that the output was fiction.

Even if they can get over the ethical concerns (which, currently, I cannot), it would be cheaper, probably more fun, and no less inaccurate to ask a passing toddler.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/topic/aad9be3d-c669-494b-8a06-402043626912/i-do-not-use-ai-in-my-legal-work.RSS for NodeThu, 28 May 2026 21:29:01 GMTThu, 28 May 2026 12:38:08 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 14:25:34 GMT]]>@neil

The obvious improvement is for the LLM to insist that it is right and that #1 attempt is a good representation of a donkey.

At the very least computer display manufacturers and anger management course providers will be better off.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/skua/statuses/116652660111911493https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/skua/statuses/116652660111911493Thu, 28 May 2026 14:25:34 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 14:22:18 GMT]]>@silverwizard @neil I’m saying in my case it’s either use AI to try to make sense of something, or totally give up. Enough of it is correct when it’s a simple question. I of course value solicitors, but try finding one who will help someone who lives on benefits and has a disability that makes communication more difficult. Literally nobody wants to help.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.piconet.work/ap/users/116590538099479427/statuses/116652647292734040https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.piconet.work/ap/users/116590538099479427/statuses/116652647292734040Thu, 28 May 2026 14:22:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 14:19:25 GMT]]>@neil @kabel42 @elexia the job of.the LLM thing is to produce plausible sounding text. And that's what it is doing. Fine legal lingo. It would take a different thing to train a legal LLM ONLY on relevant training material AND to do the output criteria correctly cited.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://nrw.social/users/Reinald/statuses/116652635948927860https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://nrw.social/users/Reinald/statuses/116652635948927860Thu, 28 May 2026 14:19:25 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 14:15:13 GMT]]>@david @neil You understand that the person you are responding to is saying that LLM output looks enough like data to sometimes fool solicitors, but has no value in understanding or assisting in interpretation? Correct?]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://convenient.email/objects/2c704a81-136a-184d-f178-d68778769659https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://convenient.email/objects/2c704a81-136a-184d-f178-d68778769659Thu, 28 May 2026 14:15:13 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 14:12:48 GMT]]>@neil I’ve been using AI to help me understand a complex legal case lately, although it is because legal experts are too expensive and I’d totally fail by myself. As an autistic person it’s simply too much data to parse unaided. If a person has money I’d always say “find a solicitor”, but in my case it’s that or nothing it seems. Nobody has capacity either.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.piconet.work/ap/users/116590538099479427/statuses/116652609902777674https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.piconet.work/ap/users/116590538099479427/statuses/116652609902777674Thu, 28 May 2026 14:12:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 14:05:47 GMT]]>@neil 😂

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mstdn.party/users/blamellors/statuses/116652582320318614https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mstdn.party/users/blamellors/statuses/116652582320318614Thu, 28 May 2026 14:05:47 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 14:04:46 GMT]]>@manchestermelly @neil that sounds no different from throwing junior devs at the problem without adult supervision or enough test coverage.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://fosstodon.org/users/DrHyde/statuses/116652578332558048https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://fosstodon.org/users/DrHyde/statuses/116652578332558048Thu, 28 May 2026 14:04:46 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 14:02:30 GMT]]>@manchestermelly @neil Is this company hiring?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.data.coop/users/decibyte/statuses/116652569421816140https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.data.coop/users/decibyte/statuses/116652569421816140Thu, 28 May 2026 14:02:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 14:01:35 GMT]]>@neil

My wife calls AI "Drunk Uncle as a Service"

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://fosstodon.org/users/bsdphk/statuses/116652565842462299https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://fosstodon.org/users/bsdphk/statuses/116652565842462299Thu, 28 May 2026 14:01:35 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 13:56:12 GMT]]>@kabel42 @elexia

It is fun, isn't it, as a "mal function" - a "bad function" - could indeed be commonplace!

I guess I just feel that the language of "hallucination" plays into the anthropomorphism of this kind of tool.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.neilzone.co.uk/users/neil/statuses/116652544686400682https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.neilzone.co.uk/users/neil/statuses/116652544686400682Thu, 28 May 2026 13:56:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 13:52:18 GMT]]>@manchestermelly @Scmbradley

There are some genuinely fascinating parallels there with interactions in online worlds, and the extent to which offences against a person can apply in an online environment.

This book is now a little dated, but it is well worth reading:

https://archive.org/details/virtualjusticene00

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.neilzone.co.uk/users/neil/statuses/116652529347895428https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.neilzone.co.uk/users/neil/statuses/116652529347895428Thu, 28 May 2026 13:52:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 13:50:34 GMT]]>@aadeacon @neil
I forget where i read it but there's already been a case where someone used a chat bot as a lawyer and their logs were subpoenaed

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/RnDanger/statuses/116652522530061963https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/RnDanger/statuses/116652522530061963Thu, 28 May 2026 13:50:34 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 13:33:06 GMT]]>@Scmbradley @neil I would love some legal advice from your six year old on something. Last weekend I participated in a tea party with my niece and a few of her dolls. Out of nowhere she threw a cup of boiling hot imaginary tea all over me, giving my imaginary burns. I had to have a doctor (who looked suspiciously like my niece) put a bandage on my head. Do I have grounds to sue?

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://universeodon.com/users/manchestermelly/statuses/116652453797307733https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://universeodon.com/users/manchestermelly/statuses/116652453797307733Thu, 28 May 2026 13:33:06 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 13:29:43 GMT]]>@neil My philosophy has been IF we ignore the ethical concerns then what is the up side of using AI?

Currently AI is a crap shoot on how right it is and even IF AI was accurate 100% of the time the act of using it is making it less likely for people to learn for themselves making it a net negative. I feel like I have noticed similar with people of all ages not being able to navigate without GPS anymore.

So currently there is little to no good reason to use GenAI.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.gamedev.place/users/VANTABlack2000/statuses/116652440529617981https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.gamedev.place/users/VANTABlack2000/statuses/116652440529617981Thu, 28 May 2026 13:29:43 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 13:25:26 GMT]]>@kabel42 @elexia

Oh, there were no "hallucinations" here, just bad auto-complete!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.neilzone.co.uk/users/neil/statuses/116652423706428064https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.neilzone.co.uk/users/neil/statuses/116652423706428064Thu, 28 May 2026 13:25:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 13:25:00 GMT]]>@neil The company I work for trialled several AIs (glorified predictive text generators) for software development. They hallucinated, would often break one thing to fix another, made things up when they didn't know the answer, and used old, outdated concepts. We've now banned AI on all client projects.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://universeodon.com/users/manchestermelly/statuses/116652422000321933https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://universeodon.com/users/manchestermelly/statuses/116652422000321933Thu, 28 May 2026 13:25:00 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 13:16:21 GMT]]>@neil
You might like this article on legal pragmatism in the Peirce tradition:
https://psodmusings.wordpress.com/2024/04/27/introducing-legal-pragmatism/
Peirce introduced abductive reasoning (as opposed to inductive or deductive) informally with his essay "The Law of Mind" from his collection "The Philosophy of Mathematics", but it's taken a long time for formalism to develop. Roger Penrose is also a proponent. It was favoured by expert systems (neurosymbolic AI) but it is not at all handled well by the LLM-based approaches to "AI".
@elexia

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116175731239673526/statuses/116652387925616376https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116175731239673526/statuses/116652387925616376Thu, 28 May 2026 13:16:21 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 13:12:12 GMT]]>@elexia @neil I can see the social media retorts now: "do not burden me with your burden tennis"

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116175731239673526/statuses/116652371647809777https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116175731239673526/statuses/116652371647809777Thu, 28 May 2026 13:12:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 13:11:37 GMT]]>@elexia Yes!

I think I saw something, years ago, in the context of flying, and how it was better for a pilot's instruments to fail off, than fail wrong.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.neilzone.co.uk/users/neil/statuses/116652369321387023https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.neilzone.co.uk/users/neil/statuses/116652369321387023Thu, 28 May 2026 13:11:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 13:09:48 GMT]]>@neil the idea that false information is worse than no information doesn't seem to click for many.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://catcatnya.com/users/elexia/statuses/116652362188406301https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://catcatnya.com/users/elexia/statuses/116652362188406301Thu, 28 May 2026 13:09:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 13:05:35 GMT]]>@neil Gemma 3:4b can't do a donkey either, this was try 4

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.radio/users/M0YNG/statuses/116652345612503281https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.radio/users/M0YNG/statuses/116652345612503281Thu, 28 May 2026 13:05:35 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 12:59:15 GMT]]>@neil I would ask my six year old any legal questions you have for half the price of a chatgpt subscription.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mathstodon.xyz/users/Scmbradley/statuses/116652320700985432https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mathstodon.xyz/users/Scmbradley/statuses/116652320700985432Thu, 28 May 2026 12:59:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 12:59:11 GMT]]>@neil In a world where people are happy to put said passing toddler in charge of the nuclear button, so long as they are painted orange... 🙂

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.nexusuk.org/users/steve/statuses/116652320423932690https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.nexusuk.org/users/steve/statuses/116652320423932690Thu, 28 May 2026 12:59:11 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I do not use AI in my legal work. on Thu, 28 May 2026 12:58:43 GMT]]>@neil indeed saw this one this morning
https://mastodon.green/@davidallengreen/116651806344880118
I wonder if there's actually going to be any severe penalties applied rather than the current stern tut and shaking of head.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.ivor.org/users/ivor/statuses/116652318646693455https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://social.ivor.org/users/ivor/statuses/116652318646693455Thu, 28 May 2026 12:58:43 GMT