Profs. Daniel Schwarcz and David Cleveland Conduct Study About Use of AI Tools in Legal Work

An article in Minnesota Lawyer discussed a new study conducted in part by Professors Daniel Schwarcz and David Cleveland which found reason to believe that AI tools will significantly enhance the quality and productivity of legal work. The professors, along with colleagues from the Centre for the Governance of AI, the University of Michigan Law School, and the Ogletree Deakins law firm, collaborated on a new study evaluating how AI tools affected legal work. Professor Schwarcz has been doing studies since ChatGPT came out and said that he has continued this line of inquiry because he is convinced it is “super, super important. “On the one hand, I am convinced it is really important. It is going to fundamentally change lawyering. The other piece of it is, yeah, there is certainly hype, and certainly undue hype at times. Figuring out what is hype, and what’s real, is important, for a lot of reasons.” But while he champions lawyers and other professionals using AI, Professor Schwarcz is not endorsing law students turning to AI to learn the law. He said, “Generally, in most classes in the law school, we have not embraced this technology, and I kind of think for good reason. When you are learning, this technology can really impede learning.”