LexBlog’s Role in the Ethics and Security of AI-Assisted Legal Blogging

Education and working with a trusted partner may be the best answer in assuring you as a lawyer or law firm are acting in an ethical and secure fashion when using AI in legal blogging.

Large law firms began blogging twenty years ago, not without ethical and security concerns. LexBlog, having brought the concept of blogging to lawyers and law firms, addressed as many of these concerns as anyone.

In most cases, firms were concerned that lawyers would breach client confidence in blogging, that they would inadvertently share a confidence. Almost as if something in a lawyer’s head would float into the computer in front of them.

We explained what blogging was – firms didn’t know – and that blogging, from an ethical standpoint was akin to going to a networking event, giving a talk or writing a paper. Blogging, as in each of those cases, need not result in a breach of confidence.

Lawyers, in most cases, are some pretty smart people looking to maintain their license by acting ethically.

Lawyers didn’t breach confidences by disclosing client or other sensitive information in external conversations, presentations or articles. They would not do so in blogging – and they did not.

“We explained” was the key. We were the experts. We were the only ones providing a turnkey blogging solution to law firms, which solution included strategic consulting and coaching. If you wanted to blog in a safe and ethical way, you chose LexBlog.

With AI, I think LexBlog can play a similar role.

LexBlog will need to explain the concept of blogging with AI not putting confidences at risk.

And be prepared to discuss that OpenAI’s ChatGPT does not collect and train user data when the user is accessing ChatGPT through it’s API, as is the case with LOU, the AI powered publishing asssistant deployed by LexBlog.

OpenAI hasn’t trained its AI large-language models such as GPT with paying customer data CEO Sam Altman told CNBC on Friday.

Paying OpenAI Customers (those buying the API) do not want OpenAI to train on their data, so OpenAI does not.

In February, when I was meeting with a group of large law CMO’s and CIO’s, a CIO asked about the ethics of a lawyer interacting with ChatGPT while blogging. Would their lawyer be at risk of breaching client confidences?

I shared that I didn’t see why in that blogging, even with an AI assistant, does not involve disclosure of client confidences.

No question there will be more concerns with AI assisted blogging than with the origin of blogging. But with education and an AI powered publishing platform directing a lawyers use of AI in publishing (more to come on this), the concerns can be addressed.

As I often do, I asked ChatGPT to comment on the role of LexBlog with Lou in the ethics and security of blogging with AI, to which my friend quipped, how about, “Lou: The Next Chapter in LexBlog’s Trusted Legacy or “Extending 20 Years of Ethical Legal Publishing into the AI Era.”

Not bad.