by
Jakub
Porzycki/NurPhoto
via
Getty
Images)
I recently was
working
on
a blog
post on
how various
stresses
placed
on
lawyers
could
result
in
unchecked citations.
The
title
of
the
post
was Billable
Hour
Demand,
Shadow
Use
of
AI
and
Law
Reality:
It’s
a
Hot
Mess.
After
it
was
more
or
less
complete,
I
ran
it
by
one
of
the
public
LLMs for
comment.
It
made
several suggestions including
the
deletion
of
the
term
“hot
mess.”
I
asked
it
several
times for
clarity
about
why
it
wanted
to
remove
the
term
without
getting
a
clear
answer.
I
finally
said,
“I
really
like
the
term
because
it correctly describes what
is
going
on
and
I’m
putting
it
in
the
title.”
The
LLM
then
replied, “Great
idea–that
term
really
captures
what
you’re
trying
to
say!”
The
post went
on
to get
more
clicks
and
likes
than
many others I
have
done.
I
mention
this
not
only
because
it
once
again
demonstrates
that
AI
tools
really
want
to
please
you
and
will
tell
you
what
you
want
to
hear. But
more importantly,
it’s
an
example
of
why
as
a
writer,
you
can’t
just
rely
on
AI
if
you
want
to
attract
readership
and
create
your
own
style.
Before
AI, I,
like many writers, would
go
through
several
drafts
and
change
things frequently before
being
satisfied
with
the final
product. But
if
AI
had
been
around
and
I
had
relied
on
it
more or
less
completely,
I might not
have
gotten a
final
product
I
was
proud
of.
No
hot
mess.
That’s
because
words
matter.
Names
matter.
The
turn
of
a
phrase
is
important
and
can
turn
writing
into
something memorable.
And
there’s
plenty
of historical examples.
It’s
rumored
that the
famous
last
line
of
the
Hemingway
book
The
Sun
Also
Rises
—
“isn’t
it
pretty
to
think
so”
—
was
rewritten
by
Hemingway
several
times. The
line
is
the
final
one
in
the
book
and comes
when
two
people
are discussing a
love
affair
they
could
never
have.
One
of
the characters muses they could
have
had
such
a
good
time
together. The
other
character
then
utters
the
famous
line. The
line “isn’t
it
pretty
to
think
so” pretty
well
sums
up
the point
of
the book
and
the
times in
which
it
was
written.
But
it’s
commonly believed that
at
one
point
Hemingway
considered
using
the
line “isn’t
it
nice
to
think
so.”
Whether
that’s true
or
not, using
the
word
nice
in
the
line
would make
it
like
a
weak
handshake: yucky. It
fails
to
capture
the
bite
and
tension
of
the
story. It’s
not
as
haunting.
Another
example: reportedly the
line “government
of
the
people,
by
the
people,
and
for
the
people,
shall
not
perish
from
the
earth”
from
the
Gettysburg
address
was originally
“government
of
the
people,
by
the
people,
and
for
the
people,
shall
not
perish
upon
the
earth.”
Changes
the
impact
considerably.
How
about
this
one:
Winston Churchill’s line from
his
Battle
of
Britain speech: “This
was
their
finest
hour.”
Reportedly
the
line
was
originally “This
could
prove
to
be
their
finest
hour.”
Not
the
same rallying
cry
to
a
public
desperate
for
hope
and
good
news.
And
maybe
most significantly,
Dr.
Martin
Luther
King’s
famous
line “I
have
a
dream” was
not
in
his
original speech drafts.
What was in his
drafts was “I
have
a plan,” or
“I
have
a
vision.” He
spontaneously added “I
have
a
dream”
when
he
was delivering the
speech.
The
words
“plan”
or
“vision”
fail
to have same
eloquence
and simply
aren’t stirring.
What
did all
these
people
have
in
common? They
started
with
a
concept
and
worked
hard
to
come
up
with the
best way
to sufficiently express
that
concept.
I
thought
about
this
when
I
heard
the
new
name
for
the AffiniPay group
of
companies:
8am. The
concept behind
the
name
was
that
it summarized in two
words
what
the
group
of
companies
is
all
about:
helping
lawyers
do non-billable work
that
they
don’t
like
doing. The conventional wisdom
is to
do what you
don’t
like
early
in
the
day.
So
8am
captures
the
essence
of
what
the
companies do.
Again,
words
matter,
titles
matter.
LLMs (Don’t) Say
the
Darndest
Things
Certainly,
you
can
use
LLMs
to
help
you
write.
But what might happen
if
we
ran
some
of
the
above
examples
by
an LLM?
The
end
of
The
Sun
Also
Rises would
have
been
“In
another
life
maybe.”
Dr.
King’s
“I
have
a
dream”
would
turn
into “the
future
isn’t
something
we
wait
for—it’s something
we
create
together.”
8am
would
be The
Legal
Edge.
See
what
overreliance
on
LLMs
get
you? Boring.
Not
memorable. Obfuscating what
you
are trying
to say.
Or
distorting
your
meaning
entirely.
Lessons
for
Lawyers
There’s
an
important
lesson
here for
lawyers.
We
are
in
the
business
of
communication.
Of
persuasion.
How
do
you
best
communicate
and
persuade?
By making
what
you
say
interesting
and
memorable.
By
treating
words
with importance and
respect.
By using
words
that
capture
what
you
are
trying
to
say
in
a
way
the
person
you
are
communicating
with
will understand and
will
stick
in
their
minds. An
LLM can’t
do
that.
At
least
not
yet.
Remember
Justice
Oliver
Wendell
Holmes
Jr.,
when
discussing
the
limits
to
the
First
Amendment,
didn’t
just
say
the
First
Amendment
is
not
absolute. Instead, he
said: “Free
speech
would
not
protect
a
man
in
falsely
shouting
fire
in
a
theatre
and
causing
a
panic.”
Conveys
the
point
in
a
clear
and
memorable
way.
But
Wait…
But
wait,
you
say.
Can’t
LLMs
come
up
with
the
kind
of
phrases
that
catch
your
eye and
distill concepts
down
to
something
memorable?
Maybe. But
an
LLM
will
likely
not
give
you
the
kind
of
phrase
you
really
need,
at
least
not
without
a
lot
of
work. And
maybe
not
even
then. But with
work
on
your
end, it
might
be
able
to
give
you
something
that
you
can
mold
into those
kinds
of
words.
Ivy Grey,
the Chief
Strategy and
Growth
Officer of
WorkRake,
said
in
a recent whitepaper,
“Legal
writing is
not
simply
assembling
words or
producing
text.
It
is
the
result
of
analysis,
strategy
and
judgement.”
It
is
that
analysis,
strategy
and
judgment
that
allows
you
to
take
what
an
LLM
gives
you
and
turns
into
something
that
can
communicate
and
persuade.
The
genius
of
Hemingway
was
not
only
that
he
came
up
with
the
words
to
end
his
book.
It
was
that
he
recognized when
he
had
it.
He
knew conceptually what
he
wanted
to
do.
He
used
his own “analysis,
strategy
and judgment.”
You
still
have
to
do
the
work.
Words
Matter
A
single
word,
a
small
change,
can
alter
tone,
power,
and
even
how your
writing
is remembered. Don’t
cede
that
to
a robot.
Don’t
let
LLMs
hijack
your
style
for
the
sake
of expediency.
Don’t
be
tempted
to
think
that
how
an
LLM
writes
something
is
necessarily
better
than
you. Don’t
substitute
speed
for
the
good. Words
matter.
And
how
do
you
get
the analysis,
strategy,
and
judgment
to
know
when
you
got
something
good?
Have
a
concept.
Know
what
you
are
trying
to
really
convey.
Look
to
be
concise.
One
final
point:
read.
Read
good
books
by
authors
who
know
how
use
words
effectively
and
memorably.
It
will
help
you to,
as
Supreme
Court Justice
Potter
Stewart once said
about
obscenity
in
a
famous
case, “know
it
when
you
see
it.”
Stephen
Embry
is
a
lawyer,
speaker,
blogger,
and
writer.
He
publishes TechLaw
Crossroads,
a
blog
devoted
to
the
examination
of
the
tension
between
technology,
the
law,
and
the
practice
of
law.