Since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, the legal field has been saturated with discussion about the implications of large language models (LLMs) for law practice and legal education. Corporate vendors and legal tech enthusiasts alike are often heard to make futuristic (and sometimes fatalistic) claims about how AI will imminently transform law. Adoption, we are told, is not a choice; this technology must be used regardless of ethical, social, environmental, and economic concerns.
The Critical Legal AI Literacies Series seeks to expose the Yale Law community to alternative perspectives on AI and the law that are grounded in empirical evidence and critical considerations about the development, use, and impact of generative AI. To accomplish this, the series brings to campus scholars from a variety of fields and areas of study, namely linguistics, race and technology, information studies, environmental studies, and computer science.
The lineup of speakers and corresponding dates can be found below.
September 9
Large Language Models and the Lawyer’s Search for Meaning
Emily Bender (Professor of Linguistics, University of Washington)
September 23
Legal AI and the Permanence of Racism
Chaz Arnett (Professor of Law, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law)
September 30
Data Cartels: The Companies that Control Legal AI
Sarah Lamdan (Deputy Director, American Library Association Office for Intellectual Freedom)
October 7
Legal AI is Trash: The Environmental & Informational Pollution of Machine Learning Tools
Anne Pasek (Canada Research Chair in Media, Culture & the Environment, Trent University)
October 14
Legal AI Snake Oil: Interrogating the Claims of Legal Tech Vendors
Sayash Kapoor (Ph.D. Candidate in Computer Science, Princeton University)
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Lillian Goldman Law Library
Supported by the Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fund