Legal Education
UC Berkeley Law School restricts use of AI by students
The University of California Berkeley School of Law has banned students from using artificial intelligence. (Image from Shutterstock)
The University of California at Berkeley School of Law announced a new policy this week that bans students from using artificial intelligence for class assignments and during exams.
“Future lawyers may need to use artificial intelligence fluently,” according to the policy, which the law school released Thursday. “But the current state of the technology requires that AI use be coupled with the cognitive skills necessary to strategically deploy the technology, to critically assess its work product, and to uphold ethical obligations to clients and to the legal system.”
“In short, thinking remains the sine qua non of good lawyering (and of a quality legal education),” the policy goes on to say.
Prohibited activities under the policy include asking AI tools to brainstorm a topic or thesis, propose an organizational structure or compose paragraphs summarizing legal rules for a paper. Asking AI tools to help correct grammatical mistakes or identity passages that could be removed from a paper also would violate the policy.
“The use of AI is prohibited for aid in conceptualizing, outlining, drafting, revising, translating or editing any work submitted for credit,” according to the policy, which also notes AI cannot be used “in any exam situation.”
Under the policy, students can use AI for research, but only for the purpose of identifying sources.
Chris Hoofnagle, a Berkeley law professor, told the San Francisco Chronicle he proposed the new rules after seeing questionable legal reasoning in an increasing number of student assignments.
“If you don’t have your own analytical judgment, AI will do it for you, and then it’s no longer your judgment,” Hoofnagle told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Professors who teach courses involving AI fluency or who want their students to use AI in certain situations can seek exemptions from the policy.
Hat tip to Above the Law.
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