Artificial Intelligence

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This week, we bring back our original TGIR podcast guest, Zena Applebaum. Zena is now the Senior Vice President of Market Development at Harbor, and we discuss the ongoing transformation driven by technological advancements and strategic shifts. Her insights provide a valuable perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing legal professionals as they navigate these changes.

Zena talks about the integration of generative AI (Gen AI) into legal research tools, particularly at Thomson Reuters, where she previously worked. She emphasizes the challenges in managing expectations around AI’s capabilities while ensuring that the products deliver on their promises. The legal industry has high expectations for AI to simplify the time-consuming and complex nature of legal research. However, Applebaum highlights the need for balance, as legal research remains inherently challenging, and overpromising on AI’s potential could lead to dissatisfaction among users.

Zena was one of the first in the legal market to understand the role of competitive intelligence in shaping product development and market strategies. Applebaum reflects on her experience at Thomson Reuters, where she applied competitive intelligence not just to monitor competitors but to anticipate market dynamics and plan for the future. This approach allowed Thomson Reuters to stay ahead by avoiding surprises and making informed decisions that aligned with long-term goals. Her emphasis on listening to customer needs and understanding market trends underscores the importance of strategic foresight in the legal tech industry.

We also talk about Zena’s move over to Harbor, where she now focuses on market development. She explains that her move was motivated by the opportunity to impact a smaller, more agile company and leverage her legal domain expertise in a broader context. At Harbor, Applebaum aims to redefine the company’s value proposition and position it as a holistic service provider for the legal industry. This shift from a product-centric role to a more strategic, client-focused position highlights the evolving nature of legal services and the increasing demand for comprehensive solutions that address various aspects of legal practice.

Furthermore, the podcast explores the potential impact of AI on the legal landscape and Harbor’s role in helping law firms and legal departments adapt to these changes. Applebaum notes that while AI has not yet revolutionized the industry as quickly as some anticipated, it is gradually driving efficiency and reshaping how legal professionals approach their work. Harbor’s technology-agnostic approach allows it to assist firms in optimizing their tech stacks and preparing for the future, whether through AI, cloud migration, or other technological advancements. This adaptability positions Harbor as a key player in guiding firms through the ongoing digital transformation.

Zena shares her outlook on the future of the legal industry, particularly the growing sophistication of in-house legal departments and the increasing competition for legal talent. She predicts that as AI continues to enhance efficiency and drive changes in the industry, the demand for skilled legal professionals will rise. Law firms will need to adapt to these shifts by embracing new technologies and rethinking their strategies to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving market.

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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jerry David DeCicca⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Transcript

Continue Reading AI, Market Dynamics, and the Future of Legal Services with Harbor’s Zena Applebaum

This week on The Geek in Review, we discuss the future of legal technology with Dr. Megan Ma, a distinguished research fellow and Associate Director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science, and Technology at the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics, also known as Codex. Dr. Ma’s groundbreaking work in integrating generative AI into legal applications takes center stage as she shares her insights on translating legal knowledge into code and the implications of human-machine collaboration in the legal field.

Dr. Ma discusses her unique background in law and linguistics, emphasizing the challenges of translating legal language into deterministic computer code. Her fascination with language and its nuances has inspired her research at Codex, where she explores how legal concepts can be effectively communicated through technology. She recounts her academic journey, explaining how her multilingual skills and interest in natural language processing have shaped her approach to developing legal tech solutions.

At Codex, the mission is to empower the legal system through innovative technology. Dr. Ma describes Codex as a collaborative hub, where experts from various fields work together to address inefficiencies and pain points in the legal system. She highlights the center’s commitment to human-centered design, ensuring that their technological advancements are co-created with relevant stakeholders. This approach ensures that the tools and solutions developed at Codex are practical and beneficial for both lawyers and clients.

One of the standout initiatives at Codex is their mentorship model, designed to mirror the traditional mentorship found in law firms. Dr. Ma explains how they use AI to create legal personas based on the redline practices of experienced partners. This innovative approach allows junior associates to receive focused guidance, helping them improve their skills and knowledge in a more efficient and impactful manner. By integrating AI into the mentorship process, Codex aims to bridge the gap between theoretical legal education and practical experience.

Dr. Ma introduces the concept of agentic workflows, where AI agents make autonomous decisions based on specified goals rather than predefined tasks. This dynamic interaction is particularly useful in legal negotiations, where unforeseen circumstances often arise. The negotiation model developed by Codex includes features like client rooms, expert consultations, and various levels of difficulty to simulate real-world scenarios. This hands-on training tool is designed to help young lawyers navigate complex negotiations and improve their problem-solving skills.

In the Crystal Ball segment, Dr. Ma shares her vision for the future of legal technology. She emphasizes the importance of developing tools that tap into the legal brain, focusing on the process behind legal decisions rather than just the end product. By capturing the experiential knowledge of seasoned lawyers, Codex aims to create more effective and intuitive AI tools that can support the legal profession in new and innovative ways. Dr. Ma’s insights highlight the potential for AI to transform the legal field, making it more efficient, accessible, and responsive to the needs of both practitioners and clients.

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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jerry David DeCicca⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Transcript

Continue Reading Training AI to Mentor Like a Partner: Insights from Dr. Megan Ma

This week, we are joined by ⁠Joshua Broyde⁠, PhD and Principal Solutions Architect at ⁠AI21 Labs⁠. Broyde discusses AI21 Labs’ work in developing foundation models and AI systems for enterprise use, with a focus on their latest model, ⁠Jamba-Instruct⁠.

Josh explains the concept of foundation models and how they differ from traditional AI models. He highlights AI21 Labs’ work with financial institutions on use cases like term sheet generation and financial document Q&A. The conversation explores the challenges and benefits of training models on company-specific data versus using retrieval augmented generation (RAG) techniques.

The interview delves into the development of Jamba Instruct, a hybrid model combining Mamba and Transformer architectures to achieve both speed and accuracy. Broyde discusses the model’s performance, industry reaction, and potential applications.

Safety and security considerations for AI models are addressed, with Broyde explaining AI21 Labs’ approach to implementing guardrails and secure deployment options for regulated industries. The discussion also covers the balance between model quality and cost, and the trend towards matching specific models to appropriate tasks.

Josh also shares his thoughts on future developments in the field, including the potential for agent-based approaches and increased focus on cost optimization in AI workflows.

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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jerry David DeCicca⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Transcript

Continue Reading Can AI Bring Both Speed and Accuracy: Josh Broyde of AI21 Labs (TGIR Ep. 261)

In this episode of The Geek in Review, hosts Marlene Gebauer and Greg Lambert sit down for a one-on-one conversation to catch up on their recent vacations and discuss some of the latest developments in the legal industry. Marlene shares her experience in Hawaii, where she enjoyed beautiful beaches, a nature preserve, and delicious local cuisine with her family. Greg, on the other hand, talks about his trip to South Africa, where he spent time in Kruger National Park observing wildlife and learning about the challenges of rhino poaching.

The conversation then shifts to the recent lawsuits filed by The New York Times, the Center for Investigative Reporting, and Mother Jones against OpenAI and Microsoft for using their copyrighted material to train AI systems. The hosts discuss the implications of these lawsuits and draw parallels to the music industry’s past struggles with Napster and the eventual rise of streaming services.

Marlene introduces a new AI-powered comic maker she discovered, which allows users to generate comic strips based on their own images and descriptions. Despite some humorous mishaps with her own generated character, she sees potential in the tool for creating engaging content. Greg shares his experience with Hedra, an AI tool that animates still pictures to create talking head videos, and the two discuss the possibility of creating a fully AI-generated podcast episode.

The hosts also explore practical applications of AI, such as AI Excel Bot, which generates Excel formulas based on plain text instructions and explains existing formulas in simple terms. They discuss how this tool could be beneficial for professionals who frequently work with complex spreadsheets.

Lastly, Greg highlights an episode of the Technically Legal podcast featuring Brandon Epstein, Chief Forensic Officer at Medex, who discusses the challenges of detecting deep fakes and the digital fingerprints left by various recording devices. The conversation emphasizes the importance of authenticating videos, especially in the news media, and the ongoing battle between deep fake creators and forensic experts.

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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jerry David DeCicca⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Transcript

Continue Reading Catching Up on Tech and Travels – TGIR Ep. 260

If you’re my age or older, you most likely remember the first rudimentary spreadsheet application you used.  You may not remember the actual moment you discovered the sort functionality, but you probably remember the feeling you got when you hit that button for the first time. In one magical moment, a jumbled list of items – randomly entered in the nonsensical order they popped into your brain – was immediately transformed into a perfectly alphabetized list worthy of your municipal library’s card catalog.  Amazing!  Revolutionary! Life changing?!

Today we live in the world of Generative AI.  It is amazing, revolutionary, and probably life changing. This technology has already changed, and will continue to change, how we use and interact with computers in business, and in our personal lives.  I use it daily.  I use it in solutions for my clients.  It takes tedious tasks of text transformation and turns them into simple push button experiences.  Just like the sort function does.

An 50 year old male professional with curly hair.jpgOf course, GenAI does a lot more than order or sort text.  It translates.  It rewrites.  It summarizes. It clarifies.  It extracts. It interpolates. It expounds upon. It combines THIS and THAT into one thing.  It re-imagines THIS, as if it were actually THAT. It recontextualizes THIS as if THAT didn’t exist. Its capabilities go well beyond simply sorting a list.  In fact, it often gets simple sorting wrong, because it doesn’t use a hard-coded algorithm to produce it’s text transformation. Instead, GenAI uses vast troves of written example language to determine the probability of the next word it should write, and then the next, and the next… until it reaches it’s maximum output or it runs out of space.

The results of this seemingly simple exercise are impressive.  It means that any writer with a rough idea of what they want to write, no longer needs to stare at a blank page (or screen), they simply ask a question or propose a concept and the technology generates a draft.  Any reader who doesn’t want to read a 400 page transcript of a court proceeding, can get a summary that guides them directly to the “important” parts of the text.  And any person who needs to transform any text from one form, or language, or perspective, to another can get a draft version of that transformation very easily and quickly.

A stupid robot sit in front of a computer making m.jpg

However, there is a downside to Generative AI.  It so easily manipulates and transforms text, that it often gives the appearance of being intelligent.  This is an illusion.  We tend to identify people who easily manipulate and transform text as intelligent people, which gives rise to the fallacy that a machine that does the same is an intelligent machine. We talk about GenAI “passing the bar exam”, as if that means it understands the law, and then we further extrapolate that we can use GenAI to replace lawyers.  As tempting as that proposition might be to those of us who are not lawyers but work with them regularly, it’s not going to happen any time soon, if ever.Continue Reading GenAI & the Magical Sort Button

In this episode of The Geek in Review podcast, hosts Greg Lambert and Kate Boyd from Sente Advisors (standing in for Marlene Gebauer) sit down with Giles Thompson, Head of Growth, and Jun Choi, Growth Executive at Avvoka, to discuss the company’s innovative approach to document automation and the impact of generative AI on the legal industry.

Avvoka is a no-code document automation platform that enables legal professionals to streamline the creation and management of complex legal documents and contracts. The company has recently introduced AI-enhanced features such as SmartAutomation (with GenAI) and SmartConsolidation , which aim to simplify the process of building automations.

Giles and Jun highlight the differences in knowledge management practices between the US and UK, with the former being more technology-focused and the latter being more human-centric. Avvoka’s platform caters to both law firms and in-house legal teams, with clients ranging from Warner Brothers Discovery and McDonald’s to booking.com.

The company also hosts a vendor-agnostic community event series called “Logically Drafted,” which bring together legal professionals interested in document automation to share their experiences and insights. These events have gained traction globally, with upcoming sessions planned for Houston (Tuesday 18 June) and Chicago (Friday 21 June), and other cities.

Looking ahead, Avvoka is focusing on integrating generative AI technologies into its platform while ensuring data security and client control. The company is collaborating with clients to provide flexibility in terms of hosting and integrating large language models, allowing them to maintain control over their data and manage risks associated with these emerging technologies.

Giles and Jun emphasize the importance of being realistic about the capabilities and limitations of generative AI in the legal industry. They believe that document automation will continue to play a crucial role, with AI serving as an enhancement rather than a replacement for existing tools and processes. The key challenge for vendors like Avvoka will be to navigate the hype surrounding generative AI while delivering practical, value-driven solutions to their clients.

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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jerry David DeCicca⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

TranscriptContinue Reading Avvoka’s Innovative Approach to Document Automation and the Impact of Generative AI – Giles Thompson and Jun Choi

In this special episode of The Geek in Review, host Greg Lambert sits down with ⁠Ed Walters⁠, Chief Strategy Officer at ⁠vLex⁠, to discuss two significant announcements: the integration of vLex’s ⁠Vincent AI⁠ with ⁠iManage Work⁠ and the automated docket ingestion feature with iManage using vLex’s ⁠Docket Alarm⁠.

The integration between Vincent AI and ⁠iManage’s Insight Plus⁠ collection allows law firms to leverage their internal knowledge assets alongside vLex’s extensive public law database. This combination of the “two halves of the legal brain” enables lawyers to create brilliant first drafts and analyze documents using the power of generative AI. Walters emphasizes the importance of data quality and the role of knowledge management teams in curating the best practice documents for training AI models.

Security is a top priority for both vLex and iManage in this integration. Walters details the various measures taken to ensure data protection, including encryption, dedicated master keys for each firm, and compliance with industry standards such as ISO 27001 and SOC 2. He also clarifies that vLex uses retrieval-augmented generation, securely passing relevant documents to a closed instance of the foundation model without training on the data itself.

The second announcement focuses on the automated docket ingestion feature, which seamlessly saves court filings from Docket Alarm into the correct iManage folders. This practical solution eliminates the manual process of saving documents and ensures that all team members have access to the most up-to-date versions of the filings.

Looking ahead, Walters hints at future integration points between vLex and iManage, emphasizing the potential for generative AI to help law firms differentiate their services and meet client expectations. He sees Vincent AI as a secure bridge between generative AI and a firm’s internal work product, enabling them to leverage their knowledge assets without the need for expensive, in-house foundation models.

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https://youtu.be/uDHXq8UT1UU

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Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jerry David DeCicca⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

 Transcript

Continue Reading vLex Integrates Vincent AI with iManage and Automates Docket Ingestion with Docket Alarm

In this impromptu episode of The Geek in Review, hosts Marlene Gebauer and Greg Lambert reconnect after being on the road for a few weeks. They discuss their recent “Love and LegalTech” mini-series, which featured eight couples sharing their experiences working in the legal technology industry. The series provided insights into communication, work-life integration, and the passion for innovation shared by the guests. 

The conversation then shifts to a recent webinar by Toby Brown and Ian Wilson, where they discussed the potential impact of AI tools on law firm hours and profits. While the idea of AI reducing billable hours may seem controversial, the hosts agree that firms must adopt these tools to remain competitive. They also touch on the importance of aligning innovation with practice groups and the need for subject matter experts and people with strong interpersonal skills to drive change management.

Greg demonstrates an example of agentic AI using a tool called Crew AI. He sets up a task to search for information on a company called Take 5 Oil Change, using multiple AI agents to gather, synthesize, and report the findings. The process involves using SERPER, a Google search agent, an AI agent (Anthropic Claude), and a reporting agent. The output includes a log of the actions taken and a one-page report on the company, its leadership, and industry classification.

The hosts discuss the potential applications of agentic AI, such as quickly gathering information for client pitches or identifying legal issues. They also explore the possibility of running AI agents within secure cloud environments to address data privacy concerns. While the concept of agentic AI is still evolving, the hosts believe there is significant potential for these tools to streamline processes and enhance efficiency in the legal industry.

The episode concludes with a lighthearted mention of Greg’s AI-generated song created by UDIO about checking conflicts before going on vacation, showcasing the creative possibilities of AI tools in the legal profession.

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Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com
Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jerry David DeCicca⁠⁠⁠⁠

Transcript

Continue Reading Catching Up on AI Agents, and Agentic Processes

In this episode of The Geek in Review podcast, hosts Marlene Gebauer and Greg Lambert welcome back Richard Tromans, founder of Artificial Lawyer, after his year-and-a-half sabbatical. Tromans shares his insights on the impact of generative AI on the legal industry and discusses his upcoming Legal Innovators conferences in California and London.

Tromans observes that while the legal industry is generally enthusiastic about the potential of generative AI, there is a stark contrast in the perception of its impact outside the legal bubble. He believes that the technology will have a significant effect on the legal sector, but it will be mostly benign, with the potential to add value to the profession once the hype and cynicism subside.

The key to real transformation, according to Tromans, lies in integrating AI throughout the entire business process, rather than using it as a mere helper tool. This integration should encompass document management systems, knowledge management capabilities, templates, and precedents. However, he emphasizes that the current economic model of the legal industry must adapt to the technology for true transformation to occur.

Tromans also discusses the upcoming Legal Innovators California conference in San Francisco, which will focus on generative AI, standardization, and the infrastructure needed to support the evolving legal landscape. The event will feature speakers from law firms, in-house legal departments, academia, and major tech companies.

Looking ahead, Tromans believes that the biggest challenge for the legal industry over the next two to five years will be the willingness of clients and law firms to embrace change and rethink their processes. He argues that the industry could have adopted AI-driven solutions years ago, but the impetus to do so was lacking. The success of this “gentle revolution” will depend on the ability of clients and law firms to challenge assumptions and adapt to the changing technological landscape.

Listen on mobile platforms:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠ |  ⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠

Contact Us: 

Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@gebauerm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@glambert
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Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com
Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jerry David DeCicca⁠⁠⁠⁠

Transcript

Continue Reading Artificial Lawyer’s Richard Tromans: Back to Work!