ChatGPT was released to the general public in December 2022 and with it began taking higher education by storm. Looking more specifically at Law Schools, news was spreading fast that the Generative AI program could pass a Law school Torts exam (Choi, HInkman, Monahan,Schwarcz, 2023) and was well on its way to pass the Bar Exam ( Bommarito, Katz, 2023). Everyone started to wonder what the impact would be on higher education. The knee jerk reaction for many Universities was to create short term responses that addressed and updated Code of Conduct policies and exam processes.

In late January 2023, our faculty at Chicago-Kent College of Law created a task force to tackle the developing influence of Generative AI programs. The task force was made up of faculty members who had been part of the testing of ChatGPT as well as other faculty and staff members that handled academic honesty concerns and code of conduct violations. The committee attempted to balance the faculty’s academic and pedagogical freedom in choosing how to test their students with the need to take reasonable steps to reduce the chances of cheating on exams with the new AI technologies. Although the committee fundamentally agreed that Chicago-Kent should make efforts to become a leader in teaching students how to incorporate AI-based tools in lawyering, they believed it is also important to take greater steps to provide reasonable safeguards against cheating.

Since January 2023, ChatGPT has been successful in passing the MultiState Bar exam.

Figure 1: This graphic shows the progression of GPT models taking the bar exam. Professor Dan Katz from the Chicago-Kent College of Law demonstrates that OpenAI’s latest deep learning model excels in complex legal reasoning and has profound implications for the legal system (Katz, March 2023)

Additionally, as improvements have been made with the expansion and incorporation of Generative AI programs now the conversation has changed to focus upon why it makes sense for students to learn how to use it and why Universities should lead the charge. Educators are now concerned that neglecting or dissuading its use could disadvantage students and result in many being left behind upon entering the workforce. At Chicago-Kent more specifically, “Lawyers need to figure out how to really use these tools. And those that do, it’ll be a very positive thing for them. We’re sitting on the dawn of a major increase in potential capacity,” says Katz. “These are tools that allow you to more effectively do your work, so you need to learn how to use them to maximum efficacy.”

This project will take a look back at the evolution of thought concerning ChatGPT and how institutions of Higher Education are now working to provide training and workshops to faculty and students.

References:

Choi, Jonathan H. and Hickman, Kristin E. and Monahan, Amy and Schwarcz, Daniel B., ChatGPT Goes to Law School (January 23, 2023). Journal of Legal Education (Forthcoming), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4335905 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4335905

Bommarito, Michael James and Katz, Daniel Martin, GPT Takes the Bar Exam (December 29, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4314839 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4314839

Murphy, Samantha Kelly. Schools are teaching ChatGPT, so students aren’t left behind (August 2023). Available: https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/19/tech/schools-teaching-chagpt-students