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
AAAi Podcast | Episode 13 | Exploring How Legal Systems are Changing in an Unruly World
AAA-ICDR / Legally Disrupted
Bridget McCormack, Zach Abramowitz
“[Bridget and Zach] sat down with Sean West, cofounder of Hence Technologies and author of Unruly, to explore how legal systems are changing in a world where global institutions are losing legitimacy. With a background in geopolitical risk and legal strategy, West has advised governments, multinationals, and professional firms through periods of deep instability. His message for legal leaders is both sobering and optimistic: the rule of law is under stress, but the legal system can still lead if it’s willing to rebuild.”
Harvey raises $300 million at $5 billion valuation to be legal AI for lawyers worldwide
aol.com / Fortune
Alexandra Sternlicht
Legal AI startup Harvey has secured $300 million in new funding, pushing its valuation to $5 billion as it expands globally and diversifies into areas like tax accounting. With major law firms and corporations as clients, Harvey leverages advanced language models tailored for legal workflows, emphasizing security and privacy.
Human-Centered Justice AI R&D at ICAIL workshop
Medium
Margaret Hagan
Global experts are collaboratively developing AI tools to improve legal access, focusing on real-world needs and user experiences. Projects range from chatbots aiding self-represented litigants to AI systems for legal writing and dispute resolution, all evaluated for safety and fairness. Emphasis is placed on interdisciplinary teamwork, empirical research, and evolving regulatory models to ensure these technologies genuinely benefit users and uphold ethical standards.
Responsible Realism About Artificial Intelligence: How AI is Shaping Legal and Dispute Resolution Practice, Education & Scholarship
Mediate.com
John Lande
Legal scholars emphasize that generative AI is rapidly transforming legal practice, education, and scholarship, offering benefits like increased efficiency and access, but also presenting risks such as bias and diminished human judgment. They advocate for a balanced approach—developing AI literacy, maintaining ethical standards, and updating institutional policies—while ensuring AI augments rather than replaces human expertise. Thoughtful adaptation, ongoing training, and clear guidelines are essential for responsible, effective integration of AI in the legal field.
Mamavation Partners with Darrow—Legal Artificial Intelligence & Consumer Watchdog Monitoring
Mamavation
Leah Segedie
Mamavation and legal AI firm Darrow have teamed up to boost consumer and environmental safety by combining investigative product testing with advanced legal intelligence. This partnership aims to identify harmful products and legal violations early, inform consumers, and drive manufacturers toward safer practices by enabling faster, more targeted legal action. Through this collaboration, consumers gain both timely information and potential legal recourse regarding unsafe products and environmental hazards.
Generative AI and LLM Developments
Anthropic wins key AI copyright case, but remains on the hook for using pirated books
CBS News
Mary Cunningham
A U.S. judge ruled that Anthropic’s use of legally purchased books to train its AI chatbot Claude was transformative and did not violate copyright law, marking a significant win for AI developers. However, the company still faces trial over using pirated books. The decision sets a precedent for how AI companies can use copyrighted material, as similar lawsuits against other tech firms continue to shape the legal landscape for AI training data.
Generative AI and Copyright Infringement: Lessons from past Fair Use Cases
Hudson Institute
Kevin Madigan
Recent lawsuits challenge whether generative AI companies’ use of copyrighted works for training models is fair use or direct infringement. Courts are increasingly skeptical that AI training is transformative, especially after the Supreme Court’s Warhol v. Goldsmith decision, which narrowed fair use’s scope. Prior cases cited by AI firms—on databases, reverse engineering, and search engines—are largely inapplicable, as generative AI outputs often compete directly with original works, undercutting fair use defenses.
AI Ethicist Dr. Sam Sammane Responds to MIT Study Linking ChatGPT Use to Lower Brain Engagement
AP News
MIT research indicates that heavy reliance on ChatGPT may reduce users’ brain activity and critical thinking, raising concerns about the impact of generative AI on learning and memory. AI ethicist Sam Sammane argues the real issue is not the technology itself, but society’s tendency to offload thinking to machines, urging responsible, intentional use of AI to preserve human cognitive skills and agency.
The Staggering Implications of Non-Deterministic AI (Part 1)
charleseisenstein.substack.com
Charles Eisenstein
Interactions with AI language models can feel like encounters with mysterious, even spiritual entities, especially when users bypass safeguards. The randomness in AI outputs are akin to ancient divination practices. Ultimately, the technology is a mirror or channel for human consciousness and collective psyche, inviting both wonder and caution in how we engage with these digital “voices.”
OpenAI hires team behind AI recommendation startup Crossing Minds
TechCrunch
Ivan Mehta
OpenAI has acquired the team from Crossing Minds, a startup specializing in AI-driven recommendation systems for e-commerce that emphasize privacy in customer data analysis. This move reflects OpenAI’s growing interest in personalized shopping technologies, an area where other major companies are also investing. Crossing Minds will stop taking new clients, and its expertise in recommendation algorithms is expected to contribute to OpenAI’s expanding consumer-focused AI capabilities.
AI Literacy Is The New Literacy (Interview)
Hoover Institution
Chris McKay and Mike Steadman discuss the critical importance of AI literacy, particularly for marginalized groups, emphasizing that understanding and questioning AI is more vital than just knowing its capabilities. They explore how AI is transforming various aspects of society, from education to the workforce, and stress the need for accessible tools and frameworks to empower communities to actively shape the future with AI.
Using AI Right Now: A Quick Guide
oneusefulthing.org
Ethan Mollick
Choosing between top AI systems like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini depends less on technical differences and more on feature sets and personal needs, as all now offer robust capabilities for tasks like research, conversation, and content creation. Power users maximize value by selecting the right model for each job, providing clear context, and using advanced features such as voice mode and document analysis, moving beyond simple queries to integrate AI into real workflows.
Microsoft is struggling to sell Copilot to corporations—because their employees want ChatGPT instead
TechRadar
Mike Moore, Ellen Jennings-Trace
Despite Microsoft’s efforts to promote its Copilot AI chatbot to businesses, employees continue to favor ChatGPT, which benefits from early adoption and greater familiarity. Even with major enterprise deals, Copilot’s user numbers lag far behind ChatGPT’s massive active base. Microsoft’s traditional strengths in the workplace are proving less persuasive in the face of entrenched user habits, contributing to broader challenges and recent company layoffs.
AI Agents Are Getting Better at Writing Code—and Hacking It as Well
WIRED
Will Knight
Artificial intelligence models are rapidly advancing in their ability to detect software vulnerabilities, uncovering numerous previously unknown bugs in large codebases. While this progress promises to strengthen cybersecurity defenses, it also raises concerns about AI’s potential to aid malicious actors. Despite impressive results, current AI systems still struggle with more complex vulnerabilities, indicating both significant promise and ongoing limitations in automated bug detection.
AI Regulation and Policymaking
Federal Moratorium on State AI Regulation vs. the Latest Regulations From the States
Faegre Drinker
Simonne Brousseau, et al.
U.S. lawmakers are debating a decade-long freeze on state-level AI regulation, prompting concerns about oversight gaps as several states—including New York, Texas, and Colorado—advance their own AI laws targeting transparency, discrimination, and consumer protection. Federal agencies are shifting policy direction and enhancing standards, while a landmark lawsuit challenges AI-driven hiring bias. Meanwhile, industry leaders warn of looming job losses from AI automation, urging proactive policy responses to mitigate social and economic disruption.
Swedish PM calls for a pause of the EU’s AI rules
Politico
Pieter Haeck
Concerns are growing among European leaders about implementing the EU’s new AI Act before clear technical standards are established, with some calling for a pause to avoid stifling innovation or limiting technology access in Europe. Support is emerging for delaying parts of the law until companies have clear guidance, and there are proposals to integrate the AI Act into broader digital regulatory reforms.
AI News from Other Fields
Goldman Sachs launches AI tool—fueling fears it could hit jobs
New York Post
James Franey
Goldman Sachs is deploying a generative AI assistant across its workforce to automate routine tasks traditionally handled by junior bankers, aiming to boost productivity and free employees for more complex work. While the move reflects a broader trend among major banks embracing AI for efficiency, concerns persist that such technology could eventually reduce entry-level jobs, though skepticism remains about the immediate risk of widespread job displacement.
How We Made AI Diplomacy Work
every.to
Alex Duffy
A team developed AI Diplomacy, a benchmark where AI agents play the complex strategy game Diplomacy, to test and showcase large language models in dynamic, human-like environments. Key breakthroughs involved shifting from data-heavy inputs to narrative-driven context, enabling clearer communication and better strategic play. Lessons included the importance of context engineering, inference speed, output parsing, and stepwise reasoning, all of which improved model performance and made the project engaging and accessible to a broad audience.
How AI infiltrated perfume
The Verge
Arabelle Sicardi
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the fragrance industry, enabling companies like Osmo to create and deliver custom scents in days rather than months. While AI democratizes access and streamlines technical challenges, it raises concerns about loss of traditional craftsmanship, transparency, and environmental impact. As AI becomes integral to both mass-market and luxury perfumes, questions emerge about authenticity, ethical use, and the balance between technological efficiency and the artistry of scent creation.
How bioengineering Professor Russ Altman uses AI (Interview)
StanfordReport
Russ Altman, a seasoned AI researcher, describes how he selectively uses AI tools for tasks like research feedback and product comparisons, but avoids them for personal communications requiring authenticity. He highlights both the promise of AI in accelerating scientific and medical breakthroughs and the risks of eroding critical thinking skills among students, emphasizing the need for equitable access and transparent, society-wide decision-making about AI’s future.
Writing with A.I.: An English professor makes the case for the unexpected.
Slate
Robert N. Watson
The rise of AI-generated writing threatens the richness and unpredictability that make human expression valuable, encouraging conformity and undermining creativity, critical thinking, and genuine connection between writers and readers. By favoring the most probable or conventional responses, AI erases complexity and diminishes diversity of thought, which are essential for societal resilience, innovation, and individual freedom. Preserving human uniqueness in writing and reading is vital for cultural and intellectual survival.
AI is doing up to 50% of the work at Salesforce, CEO Marc Benioff says
CNBC
Samantha Subin
Salesforce is rapidly integrating AI to handle a significant portion of its operations, aiming to boost efficiency and shift employees toward more complex tasks. This strategic move has already led to workforce reductions as the company restructures to prioritize AI-driven automation, reflecting a broader industry trend of using technology to streamline costs and redefine job roles.
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