‘It doesn’t surprise me that lawyers don’t know a lot about it’
Vancouver tech lawyer Ryan Black’s work with video game companies put him in a position to watch the rise of artificial intelligence in the industry.“The degree to which it was impacting game studios really surprised people,” said Black, who helped the Law Society of British Columbia draft advice for lawyers about the use of AI.
Ke told the court that discovering that the cited cases were fictitious was “mortifying,” and she quickly informed the Law Society and admitted a “lack of knowledge of the risks” of using AI to draft court submissions. The law society’s guidance, issued in late 2023, urges lawyers to seek training in the use of the technology, and be aware of confidentiality issues around data security, plagiarism and copyright concerns, and potential bias in materials produced by the technology.
He said he’s encountered lawyers and judges who are either “completely dialed into it, to completely averse to it, to completely agnostic to it.” Thomasen said evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of technology has to be done “in spite of what is often a lot of hype.”