Q&A: Using artificial intelligence at Vanderbilt Law School | Legal

It’s very much an experiment. We chose “lab” for a very intentional reason. Our objective is to explore and experiment at the intersection of AI — and emerging technologies, but particularly AI — and access to legal services and legal information.

It’s about AI in law as opposed to the law of AI. We’re not focused on intellectual property law with respect to AI. We’re focused on how our lawyers and other people are using AI technology to better serve folks who have legal problems and need help. 

From the student perspective, we have many objectives, but they all center on how do we give our students the opportunity to gain knowledge, understanding and experience in this area.

The curriculum has two primary objectives. One, to give students experience using generative AI tools so that they understand how they work, and they can understand how to leverage the tools within the ethical framework that lawyers are governed by. 

The second prong is how are we preparing our students to have as deep an understanding as possible of that intersection of our of ethics and AI and related technologies, so that when they go out into the world and have the opportunity to shape that policy and regulations — which lawyers are often very involved in that kind of work — at Vanderbilt, we prepare our students to be leaders in that respect. 

Lawyers have a very critical role to play. It feels like we’re at a critical juncture with respect to society and what these tools are going to mean for us and how we’re going to use them in a way that is a net positive. My hope is by preparing our students, we’re empowering them to really effectively participate in that kind of work so that we get really good results. 

My background is actually in teaching how we use methods and mindset of human-centered design to better deliver legal services. … Our approach with the lab is that the humans who are served by the law have to be the center of everything we do.

I think one big question is “how do we, as lawyers, use and partner with technology to make law better for as many people as possible?” I think that’s an overarching question. 

I hope that I can empower my students to really reflect on “what is it that I as a human bring?” and “what are those things that I can really focus on and double down on to ensure my relevance?”