The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Our Clients

Posted on April 25, 2024, by Massey Law Group

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are being used more frequently in the legal profession. However, how they currently impact our clients outweighs the automated convenience. 

For example, with AI being used to make decisions on human performance, there is a clear gap in the data relating to minorities. With little to no government regulation on AI and inherent bias within the data, we must be aware of the threats AI poses to our society and how it’s systemically marginalizing minorities. 

Mashekia Allgood, AI ethicist and founder of AllAI, and Starlett Massey, founder of Massey Law Group, joined together to:

• Discuss key areas of concern and how AI is becoming deeply embedded in our clients’ day-to-day lives. 
• Explore topics to consider in litigation concerning these technologies. 
• Discover how AI’s impact will change how we service our clients.

Masheika said, “Many problems with AI are bigger than the implementation process. They go directly to the fundamentals of automation and the impact of automation in society.” AI, as a system, does not have the capability to recognize what data exists due to systemic bias. 

How is AI directly affecting our clients and broadening the gap between minorities? When feeding AI data, it is still unclear whether we can “teach away” the inherent bias within the data. This has essentially resulted in cases where minorities have been targeted as perpetrators or not given equal access to healthcare. 

“We’re feeding AI data — our social record. It is part of who we’ve been as societies over time. So it’s not like we can give it clean data without biases. We don’t even understand how deep and in what form those biases are,” said Masheika. 

In cases where AI is used, some decisions are unexplainable. This is primarily because the data being used is biased. Thus, AI furthers our society’s inherent bias within the workplace, the healthcare system, policing, the education system, and new technology. 

There is also the question of securing private data while using AI. “We have not created a structure around this technology that considers private data security,” Mashieka said. Therefore, when choosing to use AI within the legal space, it is critical to implement tools that properly secure algorithms.

Through discussing AI’s impact on our clients, we explore how automation on a wide-scale level is not advancing our society but instead causing harm. Awareness of AI’s effects on your firm, practice, and clients’ cases affords you the knowledge and insight to consult the proper experts. Understanding how AI has been ingrained into society and how it continues to shape it enables us to properly address its negative impacts.  

Available as a free Florida CLE 1-hour technology credit through January 31, 2025. Florida attorneys may contact Starlett Massey for the course number to obtain their credit.

We encourage you to get involved in the conversation, discover the role of AI in the legal profession, and watch now →

Learn more → Watch the first of three primers on AI, which explores the impact of AI on the practice of law.