I was wrong about AI in law

And here's what I'm doing about it.

For years, I've been saying AI for legal work is overhyped. That from the lawyer’s perspective, the quality’s not there. And that it probably wouldn’t get there.

As recent as a year ago, the state of the art was mostly machine learning tools that only spotted legal issues and created a PDF listing those out. Just all felt a bit meh.

I was so convinced that it was a dead end, that I wrote a rather public post on LinkedIn about it a year ago. Arguing it was foolish for legal teams to invest in AI and machine learning.

The tech couldn't deliver real value or efficiency gains for busy lawyers. Or so I thought…

Given the undeniable abilities of the current generation of AIs.. it has left me with a decent amount of social media egg smeared on my face.

Legal AI has gotten really good

The AI revolution in law is here, and it's moving fast. AI models like GPT-4 and Claude Opus have changed the game.

They provide the raw horse power. When combined with deep legal domain knowledge their drafting potential is mind boggling.

It’s light-years beyond what I imagined a year ago and new models are being released every month.

Introducing DraftPilot

That's why I'm thrilled to announce that my cofounder Chris O’Sullivan and I are going all-in on legal AI, with our new company DraftPilot.

We're building the AI contract review sidekick I wish I had back when I was slogging through dozens of contract redlines each month.

Think of it like an expert advisor looking over your shoulder as you work, but a million times faster. Our tool will show its analysis, allow you to check its work and reasoning, and let you input custom checklists or playbooks that let the AI know what you care about.

You'll be able to redline a contract in minutes instead of hours, without sacrificing quality.

How it’s going to change how you do legal work

There's a bit of an arms race happening in legal AI right now.

Some tools promise fully automated contract markup with zero time investment from the lawyer. I call this the robot approach.

I get the appeal, but as an attorney, I actually prefer tools that function more as a copilot. I'd much rather spend 15 minutes vs. zero minutes if it means I can course correct the AI based on my knowledge of the deal, and have full confidence in the final work product. So that’s the direction we’re taking with DraftPilot.

I call that the Ironman approach, after all, there’s still a human lawyer in the suit!

So yeah, I'm going to be "that guy" - the one who makes a 180 on a topic after a viral post arguing the opposite. But I'd rather be right in the long run than internally consistent and wrong!

If you're an in-house lawyer who wants to be on the bleeding edge of what's possible with AI contract review, I invite you to join us.

Jump on the DraftPilot waitlist and be among the first to experience the future of law!

The robots are here. Let's show 'em who's boss.

Daniel

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Daniel van Binsbergen
CEO at DraftPilot
LinkedIn