Month: March 2024

AI Law

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Watch the full video here

In the second AI conversation of the King’s Academy ‘Interfaculty Insights’ series, Professor Dan Hunter, Executive Dean of the Dickson Poon School of Law, shared his multifaceted engagement with artificial intelligence (AI). Prof Hunter discussed the transformative potential of AI, particularly generative AI, in legal education, practice, and beyond. With a long history in the field of AI and law, he offered a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities presented by this rapidly evolving technology. To say he is firmly in the enthusiast camp, is probably an understatement.

A wooden gavel with ‘AI’ embossed on it

From his vantage point, Prof Hunter presents the following key ideas:

  1. AI tools (especially LLMs) are already demonstrating significant productivity gains for professionals and students alike but it is often more about the ways they can do ‘scut work’. Workers and students become more efficient and improve work quality when using these models. For those with lower skill levels the improvement is even more pronounced.
  2. While cognitive offloading to AI models raises concerns about losing specific skills (examples of long division or logarithms were mentioned), Prof Hunter argued that we must adapt to this new reality. The “cat is out of the bag” so our responsibility lies in identifying and preserving foundational skills while embracing the benefits of AI.
  3. Assessment methods in legal education (and by implication across disciplines) must evolve to accommodate AI capabilities. Traditional essay writing can be easily replicated by language models, necessitating more complex and time-intensive assessment approaches. Prof Hunter advocates for supporting the development of prompt engineering skills and requiring students to use AI models while reflecting on the process.
  4. The legal profession will undergo a significant shakeup, with early adopters thriving and those resistant to change struggling. Routine tasks will be automated obligating lawyers to move up the value chain and offer higher-value services. This disruption may lead to the need for retraining.
  5. AI models can help address unmet legal demand by making legal services more affordable and accessible. However, this will require systematic changes in how law is taught and practiced, with a greater emphasis on leveraging AI’s capabilities.
  6. In the short term, we tend to overestimate the impact of technological innovations, while underestimating their long-term effects. Just as the internet transformed our lives over decades, the full impact of generative AI may take time to unfold, but it will undoubtedly be transformative.
  7. Educators must carefully consider when cognitive offloading to AI is appropriate and when it is necessary for students to engage in the learning process without AI assistance. Finding the right balance is crucial for effective pedagogy in the AI era.
  8. Professional services staff can benefit from AI by identifying repetitive, language-based tasks that can be offloaded to language models. However, proper training on responsible AI use, data privacy, and information security is essential to avoid potential pitfalls.
  9. While AI models can aid in brainstorming, generating persuasive prose, and creating analogies, they currently lack the ability for critical thinking, planning, and execution. Humans must retain these higher-order skills, which cannot yet be outsourced to AI.
  10. Embracing AI in legal education and practice is not just about adopting the technology but also about fostering a mindset of change and continuous adaptation. As Prof Hunter notes, “If large language models were a drug, everyone would be prescribed them.” *

The first in the series was Dr Mandeep Gill Sagoo

* First draft of this summary generated from meeting transcript via Claude

Breathless AI for EDU

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Microsoft EDU presentations at the BETT show were high energy and breathless and this video adopts the same tone. Being ancient myself I carry within me hard to shake cultural norms and, despite my love of so many things from across the pond, still blink nervously when confronted with ‘Wow, look at this people!’ approaches to sales- BETT is increasingly like this it has to be said. (side note: all the Twitter folk who shout ‘MOST PEOPLE ARE USING CHATGPT WRONG!’ get automatic hard passes from me every single time).

Anyway, this video is a summary of one of the presentations I watched and I watched it all then and recently watched the video summary too. There’s a lot to be sceptical about and a lot that wouldn’t leave me quite as breathlessly excited but there’s also a ton of things in here that are indicative of the direction MS products are going in the education space- particularly in relation to schools. The MS Teams for Education integrations suggest we may soon be talking again about the what and where of VLEs too. To be fair, the Copilot ‘side by side’ in MS Edge approach is something I don’t routinely do but it may nudge me towards using a browser other than Safari or Chrome finally (or maybe not!). The Copilot for Educators resource mentioned is very useful. The big deal towards the end is on school-focussed Teams embellishments but they are worth thinking about as they suggest likely trajectories for all sectors. Much of the reader and speaker AI support look like tools that would transfer to the HE context and the admin/ resource creation ideas will likely be popular too.

The presenter’s examples and own style really underline the American bias in the tool development and the way the reading and speaker coach tools will further homogenise accent and dialect. My daughter already says ‘gotten’ and ‘sidewalk’ and was delighted yesterday to find out a show she wants to see was ‘on Broadway’ until we explained that Broadway is in New York. The question for us in the ‘not America’ English speaking/ using world is how much loss to homogenisation will be perceived to be acceptable for assumed gains: actually a question you might ask about a lot of these tech. Predicted degrees of divergence in orthography and dialect leading to an inability to understand one another never manifested beyond some pretty well-known differences (though subtitles are a solid friend with some TV) so I think accent and tone variants are the most at risk.

Anyway, what I came here to say was I think it’s worth a watch (32 mins) or having on in the background when you’re doing something placid, calm and terribly British, like drinking tea, having a curry or watching football.

TL:DW? I used Gemini (whilst waving fist at Copilot) to produce a summary based on the transcript

Navigating the Path of Innovation: Dr. Mandeep Gill Sagoo’s Journey in AI-Enhanced Education

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Dr. Mandeep Gill Sagoo, a Senior Lecturer in Anatomy at King’s College London, is actively engaged in leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance education and research. Her work with AI is concentrated on three primary projects that integrate AI to address diverse challenges in the academic and clinical settings. The following summary (and title and image, with a few tweaks from me) was synthesised and generated in ChatGPT using the transcript of a fireside chat with Martin Compton from King’s Academy. The whole conversation can be listened to here.

AI generated image of a path winding through trees in sunlight and shadow
  1. Animated Videos on Cultural Competency and Microaggression: Dr. Sagoo has led a cross-faculty project aimed at creating animated, thought-provoking videos that address microaggressions in clinical and academic environments. This initiative, funded by the race equity and inclusive education fund, involved collaboration with students from various faculties. The videos, designed using AI for imagery and backdrops, serve as educational tools to raise awareness about unconscious bias and microaggression. They are intended for staff and student training at King’s College London and have been utilised in international collaborations. Outputs will be disseminated later in the year.
  2. AI-Powered Question Generator and Progress Tracker: Co-leading with a second-year medical student and working across faculties with a number of others, Dr. Sagoo received a college teaching fund award to develop this project, which is focused on creating an AI system that generates single best answer questions for preclinical students. The system allows students to upload their notes, and the AI generates questions, tracks their progress, and monitors the quality of the questions. This project aims to refine ChatGPT to tailor it for educational purposes, ensuring the questions are relevant and of high quality.
  3. Generating Marking Rubrics from Marking Schemes: Dr. Sagoo has explored the use of AI to transform marking schemes into detailed marking rubrics. This project emerged from a workshop and aims to simplify the creation of rubrics, which are essential for clear, consistent, and fair assessment. By inputting existing marking schemes into an AI system, she has been able to generate comprehensive rubrics that delineate the levels of performance expected from students. This project not only streamlines the assessment process but also enhances the clarity and effectiveness of feedback provided to students.

Dr. Sagoo’s work exemplifies a proactive approach to incorporating AI in education, demonstrating its potential to foster innovation, enhance learning, and streamline administrative processes. Her projects are characterised by a strong emphasis on collaboration, both with students and colleagues, reflecting a commitment to co-creation and the sharing of expertise in the pursuit of educational excellence.

Contact Mandeep