I recently had a rewarding experience discussing a short story, What Happened? A Mediation Story Featuring RPS Coach, with Roger Greenberg’s class on mediation and arbitration at South Texas College of Law Houston. The students’ reactions illustrated how this story can be a valuable teaching tool, portraying a conflict that led to mediation. The story … Continue reading How Much Can You Teach with One Mediation Story?
A friend recently observed that people often perceive me as a proponent of using generative artificial intelligence (AI), as if I think that everyone should use it regardless of their needs, interests, or whether they use it responsibly. But that’s not how I see myself. I am a proponent of helping people create value, improve … Continue reading Why I Write About AI
There has been a lot of discussion about whether artificial intelligence (AI) will help or harm law students. The National Law Review’s article, The 2026 Top 50 Legal Innovators in Academia, provides a useful contribution to this discussion. The article describes faculty and administrators at law schools across the country who are teaching students how … Continue reading How Law Schools Are Teaching Students to Use AI Responsibly
Discussions about artificial intelligence (AI) often fall into simple, polarized stories. AI will bring great prosperity or bring the end of civilization. It enhances human capabilities or destroys them. People who use it are innovative – or lazy, dishonest, or intellectually deficient. People in the dispute resolution field should recognize this pattern. We have a … Continue reading Getting Beyond Simple Stories About AI
My colleague, Renee Henson, wrote an important new article, My Negotiation Chatbot Toby and Pedagogical Governance, about a chatbot that she developed for her first-year Lawyering: Problem-Solving and Dispute Resolution course at the University of Missouri Law School. Her article provides a thoughtful analysis of how faculty can use AI to improve legal education. It … Continue reading Meet Toby: Teaching and Learning with AI in Centaur Mode
This weekend, I returned home from the fabulous AALS ADR Section Works in Progress conference at the University of Missouri. (Not a long trip for me.) As always, I really enjoyed the presentations and conversations with friends and colleagues. By all accounts, Carli Conklin and Rachel Wechsler did an outstanding job planning and hosting the … Continue reading Does Your Law School Have an AI Strategy?
AI slop is coming to a legal system near you. Actually, it probably already has. Lawyers increasingly encounter AI-generated material from clients, counterpart attorneys, self-represented parties, experts, and others. Some of it is excellent. Some is slop. Here’s a technical illustration. Like it or not, your graduates are likely to deal with AI – including … Continue reading Beyond AI Slop: Preparing Law Students for Responsible Practice in the AI Era
Remember when parties developed unrealistic expectations all by themselves? Now they have AI to help. These days, mediators may have to work through expectations that have hardened around an AI-generated assessment. Lawyers may have to explain why the AI analysis is wrong, incomplete, or wildly overconfident. And imagine the client’s surprise when the other side … Continue reading What Are We Going to Do About AI Slop?
When mediate.com recently created this homepage for RPS Coach, it seemed like a good time to reflect on my amazing journey with this bot – and others’ too. I invited people to submit testimonials describing their experiences using RPS Coach, which are posted on the website. Their responses prompted me to think about the last … Continue reading Turns Out That RPS Coach Really Is Pretty Cool
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a regular part of professional practice. Practitioners can use AI to prepare, organize information, brainstorm questions, draft communications, and think through difficult situations. The value of AI depends substantially on how people use it. Consider the difference between using AI in centaur mode and zombie mode. An AI centaur system … Continue reading Don’t Be a Zombie: Develop Your Own AI Centaur System
