Before using any generative AI tool, including the tools included with Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg, it's important to first check with your employer. What are their policies on generative AI? They have have restrictions or requirements that you need to be aware of before you use generative AI tools for research involving internal data, documents, or information.
When using generative AI as part of your research process, it is ultimately your job to supervise the AI and ensure the information you rely on is accurate, compete, and up to date. In order to responsibly use AI and supervise its output, spend some time learning about the types of legal generative AI tools available for law students, their risks and limitations, and how to effectively evaluate and use generative AI tools. Here are my recommended resources to help you with this process:
Generative AI Tools for USD Law Students
This guide from the University of San Diego was created for their law students, but the information is generally equally applicable to Seattle U law students. I especially recommend the sections that provide an introduction to the Generative AI Tools on Lexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg, including the note on hallucinations and quality of results, as well as the Tips to Use AI More Effectively.
Generative AI Tools and Resources for Law Students
This guide was created for students at the UC Davis School of Law. I recommend reviewing the sections on Evaluating and Using Generative AI Tools, and Risks, Limitations, and Professional Responsibility.
Use legal generative AI tools for legal research - they are typically more secure than an open AI tool like ChatGPT and they have been trained on legal materials, so you will generally get more accurate answers (although they do still hallucinate at times, so always double check the AI answer with your own independent research).
The main legal generative AI tools currently available to law students include:
From the Lexis home page, select the link for Protege from the top right corner of the page for a pop-out side bar version, or select Protege from the vertical menu on the left side of the screen for a full-screen version. Use the "Ask" feature to ask a legal research question. Use the "Summarize" feature to receive a quick summary of a case.
Currently the default home page for Westlaw, but if your home page settings are different select the AI-Assisted Research tab and use the "Ask a legal research question" box.
From the Westlaw home page, select the link for CoCounsel from the top of the screen. Use the Research task to ask a research question.
Bloomberg has an AI tool called Bloomberg Law Answers that is still in beta testing and does not offer the ability to ask follow up questions. To access Bloomberg Law Answers, you must first run a search in the Bloomberg database. At the top of the search results page, you should see a box titled Bloomberg Law Answers. Select Generate Bloomberg Law Answer to access an AI generated answer to your search query.
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