Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for AI?

Research Prof. Maura Grossman has long studied the effectiveness of machine learning and its implications for the delivery of legal services. She learned early on that machines were better than lawyers at many tasks, especially in the ediscovery process. But she recognized right away that to adopt and implement new technologies, lawyers needed to see proof that the new tools worked.

In this episode, host Dan Linna talks to Grossman about what questions lawyers should be asking when evaluating tools purporting to use artificial intelligence to solve problems with legal services delivery.

Grossman tells Linna that until there’s some sort of consumer consortium for AI, something like a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval or Consumer Reports for algorithms, lawyers will need to be smart about evaluating the tools entering the market.

She and Linna discussed eight questions that should guide a lawyer’s evaluation of AI tools. Grossman says lawyers should be asking pointed questions about:

The problem or pain point the tool is trying to solve

How much data cleanup has to happen before the tool can be used

What training needs to be done for the tool to be implemented

Whether the tool has been validated

On that last point, Grossman says the buyer doesn’t want to be a beta tester for the AI tool.

Professor Maura R. Grossman is a research professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, and principal at Maura Grossman Law.

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