Classroom Issues

So far the University has not issued any guidance about the use of AI chatbots in the classroom. Instructors may set their own rules for the use of these tools and should do so in the syllabus.

Beyond these basics, it might be useful to consider how you would judge the following uses of a chatbot:

• To generate a thesis or central claim for a paper without quoting it directly
• To generate an outline for a paper without quoting it directly
• To draft a paper that they extensively edit
• To answer hypothetical questions in class or for other in-class projects
• To generate hypothetical problems to help them study for exams
• To create a custom chatbot for your course, incorporating the casebook and their class notes

Practice Issues

AI chatbot create a wide range of ethical considerations for law practice. Recent news stories about lawyers submitting pleadings with fictitious cases that were “hallucinated” by ChatGPT are just the most obvious. The alumni with whom I have been in contact have all said that it is imperative that we train students now about the ethics of using chatbots.

Our colleague Mark Palmer has addressed many of these issues in a very useful column. Mark also recommends another short article about ethics and chatbots.