AI Governance, Risk And Opportunity At The LitForward Innovation Summit

From October 1 to 3, the LitForward Center for Technology, Research and Analysis convened its First Annual LitForward Innovation Summit. The first session of the summit, "AI Governance: Managing Risk and Opportunity," presented an active discussion of artificial intelligence (AI) and the practical realities of what clients have been asking for. This led to a friendly discussion and semi-debate among the summit participants regarding the uptake of AI generally within the legal field and what client expectations would be for the uses of AI both within client organizations and for work performed for clients by outside counsel.

The AI discussion was loosely based on the conceit that people are generally "cognitive misers." That is, instead of actively making decision-making more complicated (and thorough) by breaking tasks down to first principles and building up a supported logical approach, cognitive misers utilize time-saving mental shortcuts known as heuristics;