Written by Market My Market’s content team, with contributions from Katie McLoughlin, Brandi Bellingham, Hannah Lin Kernal, and Anastasiya Kalyuk
ChatGPT is one of the latest artificial intelligence (AI) innovations that has people both intrigued and concerned. The language processing tool answers questions and composes writing and code. Companies have used AI for a long time, but the public now has access to it and has found practical ways to use the technology. While the possibilities may seem endless with this chatbot, it has its limitations, especially with legal writing, which requires a thorough understanding of legal concepts and terminology and years of experience.
While ChatGPT attempts to replicate human-like conversation, it cannot provide the same connection and emotional intelligence human writers do. Therefore, it’s important to have a complete understanding of the tool’s strengths and weaknesses so you can use it to its full potential.
Contributed by Katie McLoughlin, Content Writer
What Are the Limitations of ChatGPT in Legal Writing?
As an AI language model, ChatGPT has been trained on vast amounts of text data to produce human-like responses to a wide range of prompts. However, there are certain limitations to its abilities when it comes to legal writing.
Lack of Legal Knowledge and Expertise
One of the primary limitations of ChatGPT in legal writing is its lack of legal knowledge and expertise. While it has been trained in a broad range of texts, it does not possess a deep understanding of the law or legal concepts. This means its responses to legal prompts may not always be accurate or complete.
Inability to Provide Legal Advice
ChatGPT is not capable of providing legal advice or opinions. Legal advice requires a nuanced understanding of specific legal issues and the ability to apply that knowledge to individual cases. While ChatGPT can provide general information about the law, it cannot offer personalized legal advice.
Limited Contextual Understanding
ChatGPT’s ability to understand context is limited, which can be a significant drawback in legal writing. Legal language is complex and often requires an understanding of the context in which it is being used. ChatGPT’s responses may not always take into account the broader context of a legal issue, which could lead to incorrect or incomplete responses.
Difficulty with Legal Jargon and Technical Terms
Legal writing is filled with lingo and technical terms that are specific to the field. ChatGPT may not always be able to understand or use this language correctly, which can make its responses less useful in a legal context.
Inability to Review Legal Documents
ChatGPT is not capable of reviewing legal documents for accuracy or completeness. While it may be able to generate legal language based on a prompt, it cannot verify whether that language is correct or appropriate in a given legal context.
Contributed by Brandi Bellingham, Content Specialist
How Long Will It Take AI to Overcome These Limitations?
Determining how long it will take AI to overcome limitations in legal writing—and many other forms of content—can be complicated to predict. However, we know Artificial Intelligence can outperform chess masters, aid designers and artists experiencing creative blocks, and provide inspiration for writers who are having trouble getting started on their work. Some law firms are already utilizing ChatGPT to create content for potential clients and contract work, reading over the work to ensure there are no glaring mistakes.
However, some law firms and organizations are, without a doubt, creating AI-generated content and putting it online without a second glance at the work. We need to remember that this is the worst that Artificial Intelligence will ever be again and that AI also has a strong tendency to learn very quickly from statistical data. Depending on the information AI can collect about legal content, it may improve enough to overcome any limitations within a couple of years.
Alternatively, AI could take decades to understand the minute differences in tone, the contrasts and similarities between different state and federal laws, and the implications of particular words within contracts. Regardless of how long AI takes to overcome these limitations, humans will also need to make the active decision whether computer-generated content will replace or fulfill significant portions of the job and creative markets.
Contributed by Hannah Lin Kernal, Content Writer
Contact the Legal Marketing Experts at Market My Market
While ChatGPT has shown great promise in a lot of industries to streamline certain tasks, using it as a tool for legal writing has several limitations that must be considered. As with any technology, it is important to carefully weigh the benefits and risks before fully embracing AI in the legal field.
At Market My Market, we have an in-house team of content writers who specialize in writing for different areas of law, from personal injury to criminal defense. Call (866) 270-2250 or fill out our contact form today to find out how we can ensure the success of legal marketing efforts.
Contributed by Anastasiya Kalyuk, Content Specialist
