In a surprising revelation, Lord Justice Birss, a distinguished Court of Appeal judge in the United Kingdom, has openly acknowledged employing ChatGPT, an AI chatbot, to assist in drafting a section of a case ruling.
The judge utilised the AI chatbot to succinctly summarise a specific legal area, integrating the provided response into his work. Lord Justice Birss stated: “I asked ChatGPT can you give me a summary of this area of law, and it gave me a paragraph.”
While commending the tool’s efficiency, Lord Justice Birss stressed the importance of not relying solely on AI for unfamiliar subjects. He underscored that he possessed prior knowledge of the subject matter, enabling him to assess the AI’s response for accuracy. Essentially, the AI was employed as a tool to expedite the judgment drafting process.
AI-driven tools are becoming increasingly prevalent in legal research, contract analysis, and document review tasks. This incident sheds light on the evolving role of AI in the legal realm and prompts crucial inquiries regarding its limitations.
The judge also described the AI chatbot as ‘exceptionally useful’ in providing the desired summary of the required legal context.
Source: Aston Bond