Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming both legal education and the practice of law. Lawyers depend on increasingly sophisticated AI tools to assist with common tasks like legal research, contract analysis and basic legal drafting.
Generative AI tools trained on large language models, like Open AI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini, can rapidly compose prose that rivals human writers. So law school applicants unsure of how to get started writing their application essays may feel tempted to turn to such tools to do the hard work for them.
Is it ethical for law school applicants to use AI tools if they aren’t prohibited? And is it even a good idea in the first place?
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Can You Use AI Tools to Write Application Materials?
Law schools have varied responses to applicants using AI to help prepare their applications. The state of play is likely to change each cycle as such tools become more popular and fine-tuned.
Some law schools openly encourage the use of AI, seeing it as part of a modern lawyer’s toolbox. Others liken it to fraud and require applicants to sign statements affirming that all their materials are original, authentic and composed without the assistance of AI tools. Any violation of such an agreement would likely be grounds for denial or revocation of an admissions offer.
At present, most law schools are silent on the use of AI. However, most admissions officers would likely reject an applicant whose admissions essays seemed inauthentic or composed by generative AI, seeing it as a sign of low effort, poor judgment or weak composition skills.
On the other hand, they’d likely be more tolerant of applicants who use AI tools during certain parts of their writing process, like research or proofreading. After all, not everyone can count on a trusted reader to help catch typos and careless application mistakes.
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Why Using AI Tools to Write Your Essays Is a Bad Idea
Application essays written with the help of generative AI tools are currently passable but generic at best, uneven at worst. The language quirks are relatively easy to spot.
Generative AI can be uncannily good at writing like a human, but most humans are not good enough writers to earn admittance to a selective law school. While an AI program that summarizes a book or answers user queries could easily write an essay about your interest in the legal field, it would not be a compelling one.
Furthermore, algorithms aren’t the only experts at pattern recognition — humans are, too. Admissions officers read thousands of personal statements each year. They will notice if something seems inauthentic or unusual. A reader trying to gauge whether you wrote your own essays is not one on whom you’ve made a great impression.
For the same reason, it would be a bad idea to use Ai to write your own recommendation letters, even if it weren’t off-limits.
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How AI Tools Are Best Used
AI tools can assist with specialized tasks within the writing process, like composing different variations of a resume bullet or condensing a long-winded paragraph. If you struggle with elements of prose like tone or style, AI tools can help you experiment with ways to tweak your voice.
AI tools can be most useful for parts of the application process that don’t require strong writing, such as helping with online research about what distinguishes a certain law school.
One great use of generative AI tools can be writing professional emails — a task that many applicants find stressful, especially those who lack extensive work experience. In the past, applicants might have turned to mentors or etiquette guides for help requesting a recommendation letter or thanking an interviewer. Now, they have AI tools trained on countless examples of business communication.
Just as if you were crafting an email based on an online model, it is critically important to carefully review and adapt the product of a generative AI tool, rather than merely copy it. AI tools should only provide a starting point when you’re drawing a blank.
The pace of AI evolution is accelerating so quickly that it’s hard to imagine the role that AI tools may play in the law school application process in coming years. For now, it’s safest to approach such tools with the qualities that will one day make you an outstanding lawyer: diligence, discernment, integrity, an open mind and a watchful eye.
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How to Use AI to Help With Law School Applications originally appeared on usnews.com
