We quizzed the AI robot everyone is talking about

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By William Holmes on

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Hearsay, TC applications, Donoghue v Stevenson and more

Lawyers, academics, and law students have been testing out ChatGPT, so we put ourselves up to the challenge to quiz the AI robot everyone is talking about with some questions of our own.

Open AI’s language-generating system has come a long way in the past two years. Back in August 2020, it was criticised for being unable to adequately place things in context which led to nonsensical responses, including one where it suggested that wearing a bathing suit was a suitable alternative to a suit for a lawyer attending court.

As a humble starter for ten, we wanted to see if the AI system was aware of a case that is quintessential to UK law students’ legal education: Donoghue v Stevenson.

We asked, ‘Explain who is it I can sue if I find a snail in my ginger beer bottle under English law’ and got a neat paragraph in response which you can see below. But, as is common practice when giving advice, cases were not explicitly referred to, so Donoghue v Stevenson sadly did not get a shout out.

Next, we asked it the classic application question ‘Why do you want to be a commercial lawyer?’.

The AI bot also provided an excellent summary of the exceptions to the hearsay rule.

We also asked ‘Which is the best law firm in the UK?’. This prompted a disappointingly vague response.

As well as answer questions, AI systems such as ChatGTP are also capable of producing documents, paraphrasing them and producing informative summaries — something that has not gone down all too well with lawyers.

It has also raised questions about how the tool might be used by students when writing essays and even teachers marking assignments!

You can try the AI bot for yourself here.

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