Cases of AI-generated errors making their way into court documents are piling up, and lawyers are facing increasing fines for the oversight. But a New York district judge flipped the script on Tuesday, encouraging the industry to charge ahead with AI — or potentially face consequences. “I heard somebody say employers are risking malpractice by relying too much on AI,” Judge Jesse Furman said, according to Bloomberg Law. “I think there may come a point where it’s the opposite — where you’re committing malpractice if you don’t incorporate AI into your practice.”
While it will take several years to reach the reality Judge Furman described, it is not difficult to imagine a time when AI becomes so good that avoiding the technology isn’t only inefficient, but improper practice. Take fees, for example. If a lawyer bills a client for thousands of hours of work that could realistically be done much quicker by an AI model, the client could have a case to contest the charges, Judge Furman said.