AI not only impacts science and engineering but starts to change the practices of law. This semester, the School of Law, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), launched a course that teaches students how to use ChatGPT to compose legal documents.

Goldman Sachs, a bank, released a report in the first half of this year, predicting that a quarter of current jobs will be replaced by AI in the future. Notably, AI can now handle 44% of legal tasks, and administrative tasks are at risk of automation.[1] AI has already demonstrated its applicability in routine legal practices, including researching precedents and drafting pleadings. In the United States, a lawyer was disciplined for using ChatGPT to prepare court documents.[2] If law students do not understand the limitations of ChatGPT, they may commit errors that not only represent ethical transgressions but may also affect their professional practice in the future.

AI has also achieved impressive results in the Taiwan Lawyer’s Bar Exam. Associate Professor Mark L. Shope from the School of Law, NYCU, employed ChatGPT to answer multiple-choice questions in the exam and obtained a score of 342 out of 600. Although this score is below the threshold of 372 required for examinees to proceed to the second stage of the examination, ChatGPT outperformed approximately half of the examinees, demonstrating the potential of AI in legal practice.

The course entitled “AI-Powered Legal Writing: Techniques, Tactics, and Tools” focuses on teaching students to incorporate AI assistant tools into the process of legal writing. Mr. Shope, who is conducting the course, highlighted that the use of AI is becoming increasingly widespread in legal writing and research. In addition to ChatGPT, the course will also familiarize students with generative AI tools such as Bing AI, Google’s Bard, and Anthropic’s Claude, exploring their applications in the field of law.

Mr. Shope said that outcomes of legal cases are typically presented in written form and that AI is useful for composing legal documents, organizing information, and preparing for litigation. As a result, numerous law firms have already integrated AI tools into their operations. Similar to other professions, lawyers also face the risk of being replaced if they fail to response this technology.

During litigation, legal teams often spend a considerable amount of time analyzing cases, studying precedents, and reviewing extensive data. AI can drastically change this situation by reducing the number of lawyers required in the litigation process, thereby facilitating public access to legal services. These changes have the potential to impact legal practice and the legal profession, consequently affecting the education and training of law students at universities.

Mr. Shope said that although the current strength of AI lies in its ability to process text and data, caution should be exercised in assessing the accuracy of the AI-generated content. For example, in the United States, a lawyer used ChatGPT to prepare court documents, and the precedents cited in these documents were all revealed to be fabricated by ChatGPT. As a result, the lawyer was subjected to disciplinary actions. Accordingly, law students must have a sense of accountability with respect to their legal writing, acquire critical thinking skills, and use AI in an ethical manner.

Chih-Hsiung Chen, Dean of the School of Law, NYCU, stressed that a pivotal educational mission of the School of Law is equipping its students with the knowledge and skills required to meet practical requirements. AI has brought about unprecedented changes in the western world, and the School of Law should prepare future legal practitioners for these shifts. On the basis of NYCU’s robust research capabilities in the field of AI, the School of Law has launched several AI-related courses. In recent years, our students have participated in the Legal-Tech Hackathon and achieved outstanding results. Mr. Shope’s ChatGPT course is a milestone for the School of Law in AI research.

Mr. Shope graduated from Carnegie Mellon University and obtained his master’s and doctoral degrees in law from National Taiwan University and Indiana University, respectively. His research focuses on the impact of AI on legal practice and cross-border transactions involving blockchain technology. Against the backdrop of the rise of ChatGPT, he authored a monograph titled The AI Writing Assistant Handbook for Law, which introduced the assistive use of AI in legal practice.