Article

The brave new world of AI:

Managing risk for solicitors

ChatGPT

Less commonly known by its full name, Chat Generative Pretrained Transformer is a language model chatbot developed by OpenAI. Chatbots are not new, your bank has been using one for a decade. ChatGPT goes vastly further however, and is able to draft emails, create text summaries and even generate advice. The ChatGPT user simply inputs source data and a command to generate new output which the Court of Appeal’s Lord Justice Birss, called “jolly useful” for time-strapped legal professionals.

These benefits are not without significant risk and Insurers have been slow to release guidance on the use of GPT. Insurers are nervous about AI because if fee earners are delivering ChatGPT generated advice to clients, several key risks arise:

Content errors

ChatGPT output can look convincingly credible even when it is inaccurate. It has been known to produce entirely fictional legal citations. The onus is on the fee earner to carefully check AIgenerated content with the same degree of care they would give to a trainee solicitor’s work before being sent to a client.

The client’s best interests

AI is not capable of critical thinking, nor can it make a judgment call on the best course of action for a client. It cannot act according to a client’s values and personal goals, so it cannot alone act in the best interests of the client.

Data security

When source data is entered into ChatGPT, OpenAI servers store that data. Once captured, the data cannot be withdrawn so it is not a safe place to input client data or sensitive case information.

Action points

As a bare minimum, legal practitioners should:

• Only use AI-generated output as a starting point for document sifting, research and first drafts.

• Train staff on its limitations and risks.

• Provide guidelines on responsible use.

• Consider obtaining cyber insurance to cover attacks or data breaches which have been facilitated by the use of AI generative tech.

• Speak to their insurers or brokers to understand how PI claims involving generative AI will be covered. 

James Robins

James Robins

Partner, Insurance

Ivan Roots

Associate Professional Risks