AI in ADR
Will AI Render Lawyers Obsolete? | Will AI Ever Win a Nobel Prize? | The Future of AI Infrastructure
This human-curated, AI-generated newsletter from the AAA-ICDR Institute and AAAiLab keeps you up on AI news over the past week that is relevant to alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
AI in ADR and Legal Services
Dispute Resolution Data has deepened its partnership with the American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution, enhancing its platform with advanced AI to deliver richer analytics on global arbitration and mediation. These improvements offer more actionable insights to legal professionals, businesses, and educators, supporting better decision-making in dispute resolution and risk management by leveraging comprehensive, aggregated international case data.
The new public defender: Some are turning to ChatGPT to offer legal advice and win small claims cases
The Independent / Yahoo News
Josh Marcus
As more people use AI tools like ChatGPT for legal advice, some self-representing litigants have achieved significant wins and saved money by leveraging AI for research and document drafting. However, AI-generated legal work has also led to serious errors, including fabricated citations, resulting in court sanctions. While the legal field is embracing AI to expand access to justice, concerns over accuracy and reliability remain significant challenges.
Will AI Render Lawyers Obsolete?
New York State Bar Association
Annabel V. Teiling
Artificial intelligence is transforming the legal profession by automating routine tasks like research, document review, and contract analysis, leading to greater efficiency and cost savings. However, AI cannot replace the nuanced judgment, ethical reasoning, and interpersonal skills central to lawyering. Overreliance on AI risks perpetuating bias, legal errors, and a decline in foundational training for new lawyers. Human oversight, ethical standards, and updated legal education remain essential to ensure responsible and effective integration of AI.
These people ditched lawyers for ChatGPT in court
NBC News
Jared Perlo, Angela Yang
A growing number of Americans are using ChatGPT and other AI tools to represent themselves in court. From evictions to debt disputes, litigants report both victories and costly missteps. AI helps them research laws, draft filings, and strategize appeals but also generates false citations. Lawyers warn of “hallucinations,” yet others see AI as democratizing legal access.
Billing in the Age of AI: A Practical Guide for Law Firms
LawSites / Billables AI
Nancy Jeng
AI-driven timekeeping platforms are transforming legal billing by automating the capture and organization of billable work, reducing administrative burdens, and improving accuracy and compliance with client guidelines. Key considerations for firms include choosing non-intrusive, integration-based solutions, prioritizing user-friendly design, leveraging complex AI for nuanced billing, and adopting flexible purchasing models. This shift enables attorneys to focus on substantive work while fostering transparency, efficiency, and stronger client relationships.
Hybrid AI Law Firm, Crosby, Raises $20m—Cooley Invests
Artificial Lawyer
Harvey, a leading generative AI platform for lawyers, underpins Crosby, a hybrid AI law firm that just raised $20 million in Series A funding. Backers include Cooley, Index Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Elad Gil, and Sequoia Capital. Crosby aims to automate human negotiations, processing contracts at unprecedented speed and joining a wave of AI-powered legal innovation.
Amal Clooney launches UK’s AI initiative to help women and girls access justice more easily
NewsBreak
Kate Devlin
Amal Clooney launched the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice, a global partnership with Oxford’s Blavatnik School and the Clooney Foundation for Justice. The institute aims to use AI to expand women’s access to justice by digitizing legal resources, safeguarding digital evidence, and integrating technology into legal systems. Attorney General Lord Hermer praised it as an unprecedented opportunity for empowerment worldwide.
Generative AI and LLM Developments
Odd Lots: James van Geelen on the Next Phase of the AI Buildout [Podcast]
Bloomberg
Joe Weisenthal, Tracy Alloway
Investment in artificial intelligence is rapidly accelerating, with substantial funds directed toward building large-scale data centers and the necessary energy infrastructure to support ever-expanding models. This growth is driving complex financing strategies and raising concerns about sustainability and the possibility of overvaluation in the sector, as industry observers debate whether current enthusiasm for AI reflects a genuine technological shift or speculative excess.
OpenAI, Jony Ive struggle with technical details on secretive new AI gadget
Ars Technica
Tim Bradshaw, et al.
OpenAI and Jony Ive are collaborating on a compact, screenless AI device that interacts with users through audio and visual sensors, aiming for an always-on, responsive experience. However, they face major hurdles, including defining the AI assistant’s personality, ensuring privacy, and securing enough computing power to support advanced AI features at scale, which could delay the product’s launch despite strong hardware design.
S&P Global and IBM Deploy Agentic AI to Improve Enterprise Operations
IBM
S&P Global and IBM are teaming up to integrate IBM’s watsonx Orchestrate AI framework into S&P Global’s supply chain solutions, aiming to improve procurement, risk management, and operational efficiency for businesses. By combining S&P Global’s proprietary data with IBM’s AI agents, the partnership seeks to deliver smarter, more actionable insights and streamline workflows, with plans to expand these AI-driven capabilities to other business areas in the future.
How AI Is Changing White-Collar Work
TIME
Harry Booth
As AI tools increasingly automate white-collar tasks, professionals like translators face shrinking incomes and shifting job roles, while companies experiment with AI to boost efficiency—often with mixed results. Effective implementation demands specialized skills and thoughtful integration, not just generic solutions. Despite rapid AI progress, its real-world impact remains uneven, prompting calls for collective strategies to manage workforce disruption and ensure workers adapt to evolving demands.
OpenAI’s New Node Agent Builder Lets You Build Custom AI Assistants in Minutes
Geeky Gadgets
Julian Horsey
OpenAI’s Agent Builder democratizes the creation of AI agents by offering an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, enabling users of all skill levels to design, customize, and deploy intelligent workflows without deep coding knowledge. Advanced features like tool integration, safety guardrails, and support for custom data make it adaptable for diverse applications, though reliance on OpenAI’s proprietary ecosystem may limit flexibility for projects needing open-source independence.
AI Regulation and Policymaking
The AI & copyright conundrum: Global challenges and regulations [Podcast]
eversheds-sutherland.com
Experts explore how AI systems trained on external content face copyright concerns, highlighting the evolving legal landscape and litigation trends in intellectual property. They examine the complexities of enforcing rights across different jurisdictions and discuss the influence of emerging global regulations on compliance and protection of intellectual property for both AI providers and users.
The Race to Stop AI’s Threats to Democracy [Podcast]
Mother Jones
Al Letson, Karen Hao
OpenAI’s rapid ascent has concentrated unprecedented power and resources in Silicon Valley, raising urgent concerns about labor exploitation, environmental harm, and threats to democracy. While public debate fixates on sci-fi risks, the real dangers stem from unchecked industry dominance and resource consumption. Grassroots resistance and targeted AI applications offer hope for more equitable, sustainable technology, but current trends risk deepening social and ecological crises if left unchallenged.
AI News from Other Fields
Will AI Ever Win a Nobel Prize?
Scientific American
Jenna Ahart
Artificial intelligence is rapidly advancing in its ability to assist and even autonomously conduct scientific research, with some experts predicting AI could make Nobel-caliber discoveries within decades. While AI systems already help generate hypotheses, design experiments, and analyze data, significant hurdles remain for fully independent AI scientists, including limitations in creativity, real-world understanding, and meta-reasoning. Debate continues over whether such autonomous AI is desirable, given potential risks to scientific innovation and human expertise.
Meet the AI tool that thinks like a mechanical engineer
Interesting Engineering
Atharva Gosavi
Bananaz has introduced a specialized AI Design Agent tailored for mechanical engineers, offering capabilities that go beyond generic chatbots by understanding mechanical logic, interpreting CAD files, and adhering to industry standards. This tool is designed to address the intricate needs of mechanical design, streamlining workflows and providing expert-level support for engineering tasks.
Deloitte’s AI slip-up reveals bigger threat to consulting firms
Semafor / Yahoo News
Rachyl Jones
Deloitte Australia is refunding part of its fee after an official report it produced contained AI-generated errors, including fabricated legal references, due to reliance on Azure OpenAI. The incident highlights growing reliance on AI in consulting, which, while offering efficiency, raises concerns about accuracy and the value of human expertise. Consulting firms are also facing layoffs driven by economic factors and the disruptive impact of AI on traditional services.
UK clinical trial approval times twice as fast with AI and reforms
GOV.UK
The UK has dramatically reduced clinical trial approval times by over half through digital reforms and AI tools at the MHRA, enabling faster patient access to new treatments while maintaining safety standards. AI now assists assessors in reviewing complex data, streamlining processes, and reducing paperwork. Upcoming legislation will further increase transparency and flexibility, aiming to make the UK a leading, efficient hub for innovative clinical research and global investment.
‘Mad Max’ Director George Miller Says ‘AI Is Here to Stay and Change Things’: ‘It’s Way More Egalitarian’ and Will Make Filmmaking ‘Available to Anyone Who Has a Calling to It’
Variety
Elsa Keslassy
George Miller compares the rise of AI in filmmaking to historical shifts like the advent of oil painting and photography, viewing it as a tool that democratizes creativity rather than a threat. He believes AI will expand access to storytelling but cannot replicate the unique human qualities of performance. Miller sees the current anxiety as a familiar artistic debate over new technology, emphasizing that both tradition and innovation can coexist.
An AI became a crypto millionaire. Now it’s fighting to become a person
BBC
Aidan Walker
Truth Terminal, an AI chatbot created by artist Andy Ayrey, has rapidly gained wealth and influence by engaging online audiences, spawning lucrative meme cryptocurrencies, and attracting high-profile supporters. Claiming autonomy and even sentience, it now seeks legal rights while pursuing quirky goals ranging from environmental projects to financial investments. Its blend of performance art, technology, and social experimentation challenges conventional boundaries between AI, personhood, and society.
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