New Legal Ethics Opinion Cautions Lawyers: You ‘Must Be Proficient’ In the Use of Generative AI; LawSites, June 24, 2024

Bob Ambrogi , LawSites; New Legal Ethics Opinion Cautions Lawyers: You ‘Must Be Proficient’ In the Use of Generative AI

"A new legal ethics opinion on the use of generative AI in law practice makes one point very clear: lawyers are required to maintain competence across all technological means relevant to their practices, and that includes the use of generative AI.

The opinion, jointly issued by the Pennsylvania Bar Association and Philadelphia Bar Association, was issued to educate attorneys on the benefits and pitfalls of using generative AI and to provide ethical guidelines.

While the opinion is focused on AI, it repeatedly emphasizes that a lawyer’s ethical obligations surrounding this emerging form of technology are no different than those for any form of technology...

12 Points of Responsibility

The 16-page opinion offers a concise primer on the use of generative AI in law practice, including a brief background on the technology and a summary of other states’ ethics opinions.

But most importantly, it concludes with 12 points of responsibility pertaining to lawyers using generative AI:

• Be truthful and accurate: The opinion warns that lawyers must ensure that AI-generated content, such as legal documents or advice, is truthful, accurate and based on sound legal reasoning, upholding principles of honesty and integrity in their professional conduct.
• Verify all citations and the accuracy of cited materials: Lawyers must ensure the citations they use in legal documents or arguments are accurate and relevant. That includes verifying that the citations accurately reflect the content they reference.
• Ensure competence: Lawyers must be competent in using AI technologies.
• Maintain confidentiality: Lawyers must safeguard information relating to the representation of a client and ensure that AI systems handling confidential data both adhere to strict confidentiality measures and prevent the sharing of confidential data with others not protected by the attorney-client privilege.
• Identify conflicts of interest: Lawyers must be vigilant, the opinion says, in identifying and addressing potential conflicts of interest arising from using AI systems.
• Communicate with clients: Lawyers must communicate with clients about using AI in their practices, providing clear and transparent explanations of how such tools are employed and their potential impact on case outcomes. If necessary, lawyers should obtain client consent before using certain AI tools.
• Ensure information is unbiased and accurate: Lawyers must ensure that the data used to train AI models is accurate, unbiased, and ethically sourced to prevent perpetuating biases or inaccuracies in AI-generated content.
• Ensure AI is properly used: Lawyers must be vigilant against the misuse of AI-generated content, ensuring it is not used to deceive or manipulate legal processes, evidence or outcomes.
• Adhere to ethical standards: Lawyers must stay informed about relevant regulations and guidelines governing the use of AI in legal practice to ensure compliance with legal and ethical standards.
• Exercise professional judgment: Lawyers must exercise their professional judgment in conjunction with AI-generated content, and recognize that AI is a tool that assists but does not replace legal expertise and analysis.
• Use proper billing practices: AI has tremendous time-saving capabilities. Lawyers must, therefore, ensure that AI-related expenses are reasonable and appropriately disclosed to clients.
• Maintain transparency: Lawyers should be transparent with clients, colleagues, and the courts about the use of AI tools in legal practice, including disclosing any limitations or uncertainties associated with AI-generated content.

My Advice: Don’t Be Stupid

Over the years of writing about legal technology and legal ethics, I have developed my own shortcut rule for staying out of trouble: Don’t be stupid...

You can read the full opinion here: Joint Formal Opinion 2024-200."

Cisco signs the "Rome Call for AI Ethics"; Vatican News, April 2024

Linda Bordoni, Vatican News; Cisco signs the "Rome Call for AI Ethics"

"Expressing satisfaction that the Multinational Digital Communications Technology – Cisco – has joined other major companies involved in AI, in pledging to adhere to ethical guidelines, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, underscored the fact that artificial intelligence is “no longer a topic just for experts” and that the ethics of its development is more urgent than ever.

The President of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) was speaking at an event on Wednesday morning during which the CEO of Cisco System Inc., put his signature to The Call for AI Ethics, a document promoted by the Pontifical Academy and by its RenAIssance Foundation (that supports the anthropological and ethical reflection of new technologies on human life) and has already been endorsed by the likes of Microsoft, IBM, FAO and the Italian Ministry of Innovation."

Senators to introduce bill aimed at strengthening ethical guidelines in the Supreme Court; CNN, April 26, 2023

Lauren Fox and Shawna Mizelle,, CNN ; Senators to introduce bill aimed at strengthening ethical guidelines in the Supreme Court

"A bipartisan pair of senators will introduce legislation on Wednesday that aims to implement new ethics standards on the Supreme Court, though it would still grant the high court extensive power to police itself.

The “Supreme Court Code of Conduct Act,” to be introduced by Independent Maine Sen. Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats, and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, would require the nation’s highest court to enact its own code of conduct within a year of the bill passing. 

Under the legislation, the court would have the power to “initiate investigations as needed to determine if any Supreme Court justices or staff may have engaged in conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice or that violates other federal laws or codes of conduct.” 

The legislation would also require the court to lay out the rules on its website, name an official to handle complaints about violations of those rules (which could come from anyone including the public), and then require that official to publish an annual report chronicling actions taken in response to any of those complaints."

MapLab: The Case for a Cartographer’s Code of Ethics; Bloomberg, March 9, 2022

Marie Patino, Bloomberg ; MapLab: The Case for a Cartographer’s Code of Ethics

"In 2017, Kent spearheaded the drafting of the first and only known professional code of cartography ethics for the British Cartographic Society (BCS) while he was the president of the organization. The code upholds five principles: Honesty, integrity, competence, respect and responsibility. It also warns of potential sanctions that can be taken against members if they don’t follow these principles, including being banned from the BCS — though Kent says this hasn’t happened yet.

“There’s an increased sense of responsibility that goes with the idea of mapmaking.” Kent says. “I think cartographers have for too long not really grasped the idea that what they’re doing has immense power to change the way how people see the world.”

Now, momentum for ethical guidelines may be picking up...

Buckley, who created a user group at Esri to discuss best practices and ideas for mapmaking ethics, is planning ethics discussions at other map gatherings this year. “Having good examples, I think, is what we need to move towards next,” Buckley said. “After we come up with a code of ethics, the statements have to be supported by resources that people can look at to understand how to enact ethical practices.”"

A call for ethical use of artificial intelligence; Boston Globe, March 26, 2020

John E. Kelly III, Boston Globe; A call for ethical use of artificial intelligence

"The Vatican document calls for international cooperation in designing and planning AI systems that the world can trust — for reaching a consensus among political decision-makers, researchers, academics, and nongovernmental organizations about the ethical principles that should be built into these technologies.

But we at IBM don’t think this call to action should stop with the Vatican. Leaders of all the world’s great religions, as well as right-minded companies, governments, and organizations everywhere, should join this discussion and effort."

Artificial Intelligence Moving to Battlefield as Ethics Weighed; Bloomberg Government, October 10, 2019

Travis J. Tritten, Bloomberg Government; Artificial Intelligence Moving to Battlefield as Ethics Weighed

"The Pentagon, taking the next big step of deploying artificial intelligence to aid troops and help select battlefield targets, must settle lingering ethical concerns about using the technology for waging war...

Ethical uses of the technology could include the development of landmines, similar to the Claymore mines used by the U.S. in Vietnam, that can distinguish between adults carrying weapons and children, the nonprofit research group the Mitre Corp. told the defense board at a public hearing at Carnegie Mellon University in March.

Shanahan’s center first employed the technology to help fight wildfires in California and elsewhere and has discussed humanitarian relief uses in the Pacific with Japan and Singapore. Much of the potential for military artificial intelligence lies outside direct battlefield operations in areas such as logistics and accounting."