AI Update: Pricy AI Employees, Reuters IP Dispute In Court, An End To The WGA Strike
This week in AI news.
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The high price for finding and retaining “prized AI talent” is one of several factors driving up the cost of legal technology, Legaltech News reports. As one consultant notes, legal tech companies sometimes struggle to justify such high-paying roles — especially when those roles don’t necessarily translate directly into profits in the way a sales role might.
Legal tech providers have already implemented AI for everything from document generation to legal research. But is there a place for AI in arbitration? For Legaltech News, ICC International Court of Arbitration President Claudia Salomon weighs the pros and cons of bringing AI into the arbitration process, including issues such as biased software and the limitations confidentiality agreements might place on the amount and type of data AI can use to make decisions.
An AI-related IP dispute between Thomson Reuters and legal research startup Ross Intelligence has been sent to trial by a Delaware federal judge, according to the Reuters editorial arm. Bob Ambrogi highlights one important aspect of the judge’s decision: Ross did, as was alleged, copy “Westlaw headnotes and other TR copyrighted content.”
The WGA strike is over after 148 days, the Associated Press reports, with significant protections for writers against the growing threat of AI-generated scripts. The proposed contract, which union members will vote on in the coming weeks, would “require studios and production companies to disclose to writers if any material given to them has been generated by AI partially or in full. AI cannot be a credited writer. AI cannot write or rewrite ‘literary material.’ AI-generated writing cannot be source material.”
IBM has joined Microsoft and Adobe on the list of companies willing to take on at least some level of legal risk for clients who use their AI-powered products, according to the New York Times. The longtime tech giant says it will compensate companies who face IP-related legal repercussions and that it will publish its data sets — a move that, as the Times points out, is not a standard practice for generative AI companies.
LexisNexis is working with Amazon Web Services and Anthropic, an AI company that recently received a $4 billion investment from Amazon, to host the generative AI model behind the legal information services provider’s Lexis+ AI platform, according to comments from executive vice president and CTO at LexisNexis Legal & Professional Jeff Reihl in an Amazon press release.
Ethan Beberness is a Brooklyn-based writer covering legal tech, small law firms, and in-house counsel for Above the Law. His coverage of legal happenings and the legal services industry has appeared in Law360, Bushwick Daily, and elsewhere.
