I lately was engaged on a weblog put up on how numerous stresses positioned on legal professionals may end in unchecked citations. The title of the put up was Billable Hour Demand, Shadow Use of AI and Legislation Actuality: It’s a Scorching Mess.
After it was kind of full, I ran it by one of many public LLMs for remark. It made a number of strategies together with the deletion of the time period “sizzling mess.” I requested it a number of instances for readability about why it needed to take away the time period with out getting a transparent reply. I lastly stated, “I actually just like the time period as a result of it appropriately describes what’s going on and I’m placing it within the title.” The LLM then replied, “Nice thought–that time period actually captures what you’re attempting to say!” The put up went on to get extra clicks and likes than many others I’ve executed.
I point out this not solely as a result of it as soon as once more demonstrates that AI instruments actually need to please you and can let you know what you need to hear. However extra importantly, it’s an instance of why as a author, you’ll be able to’t simply depend on AI if you wish to entice readership and create your individual fashion.
Earlier than AI, I, like many writers, would undergo a number of drafts and alter issues regularly earlier than being glad with the ultimate product. But when AI had been round and I had relied on it extra or much less utterly, I would possibly not have gotten a ultimate product I used to be happy with. No sizzling mess.
That’s as a result of phrases matter. Names matter. The flip of a phrase is vital and might flip writing into one thing memorable. And there’s loads of historic examples.
It’s rumored that the well-known final line of the Hemingway e book The Solar Additionally Rises — “isn’t it fairly to assume so” — was rewritten by Hemingway a number of instances. The road is the ultimate one within the e book and comes when two individuals are discussing a love affair they may by no means have. One of many characters muses they may have had such time collectively. The opposite character then utters the well-known line. The road “isn’t it fairly to assume so” fairly nicely sums up the level of the e book and the instances by which it was written.
Nevertheless it’s generally believed that at one level Hemingway thought of utilizing the road “isn’t it good to assume so.” Whether or not that’s true or not, utilizing the phrase good within the line would make it like a weak handshake: yucky. It fails to seize the chew and stress of the story. It’s not as haunting.
One other instance: reportedly the road “authorities of the folks, by the folks, and for the folks, shall not perish from the earth” from the Gettysburg tackle was initially “authorities of the folks, by the folks, and for the folks, shall not perish upon the earth.” Modifications the impression significantly.
How about this one: Winston Churchill’s line from his Battle of Britain speech: “This was their most interesting hour.” Reportedly the road was initially “This might show to be their most interesting hour.” Not the identical rallying cry to a public determined for hope and excellent news.
And perhaps most considerably, Dr. Martin Luther King’s well-known line “I’ve a dream” was not in his unique speech drafts. What was in his drafts was “I’ve a plan,” or “I’ve a imaginative and prescient.” He spontaneously added “I’ve a dream” when he was delivering the speech. The phrases “plan” or “imaginative and prescient” fail to have identical eloquence and merely aren’t stirring.
What did all these folks have in frequent? They began with an idea and labored onerous to provide you with one of the best strategy to sufficiently categorical that idea.
I considered this once I heard the brand new identify for the AffiniPay group of corporations: 8am. The idea behind the identify was that it summarized in two phrases what the group of corporations is all about: serving to legal professionals do non-billable work that they don’t like doing. The typical knowledge is to do what you don’t like early within the day. So 8am captures the essence of what the businesses do.
Once more, phrases matter, titles matter.
LLMs (Don’t) Say the Darndest Issues
Definitely, you should utilize LLMs that can assist you write. However what would possibly occur if we ran among the above examples by an LLM?
The tip of The Solar Additionally Rises would have been “In one other life perhaps.”
Dr. King’s “I’ve a dream” would flip into “the longer term isn’t one thing we await—it’s one thing we create collectively.”
8am could be The Authorized Edge.
See what overreliance on LLMs get you? Boring. Not memorable. Obfuscating what you might be attempting to say. Or distorting your which means completely.
Classes for Legal professionals
There’s an vital lesson right here for legal professionals. We’re within the enterprise of communication. Of persuasion. How do you finest talk and persuade? By making what you say fascinating and memorable. By treating phrases with significance and respect. By utilizing phrases that seize what you are attempting to say in a means the individual you might be speaking with will perceive and can stick of their minds. An LLM can’t try this. At the least not but.
Keep in mind Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., when discussing the boundaries to the First Modification, didn’t simply say the First Modification is just not absolute. As an alternative, he stated: “Free speech wouldn’t defend a person in falsely shouting fireplace in a theatre and inflicting a panic.” Conveys the purpose in a transparent and memorable means.
However Wait…
However wait, you say. Can’t LLMs provide you with the type of phrases that catch your eye and distill ideas all the way down to one thing memorable?
Possibly. However an LLM will seemingly not provide the type of phrase you actually need, at the least not with out a number of work. And perhaps not even then. However with work in your finish, it’d be capable to offer you one thing you can mould into these sorts of phrases.
Ivy Gray, the Chief Technique and Progress Officer of WorkRake, stated in a latest whitepaper, “Authorized writing is just not merely assembling phrases or producing textual content. It’s the results of evaluation, technique and judgement.” It’s that evaluation, technique and judgment that permits you to take what an LLM offers you and turns into one thing that may talk and persuade. The genius of Hemingway was not solely that he got here up with the phrases to finish his e book. It was that he acknowledged when he had it. He knew conceptually what he needed to do. He used his personal “evaluation, technique and judgment.”
You continue to need to do the work.
Phrases Matter
A single phrase, a small change, can alter tone, energy, and even how your writing is remembered. Don’t cede that to a robotic.
Don’t let LLMs hijack your fashion for the sake of expediency. Don’t be tempted to assume that how an LLM writes one thing is essentially higher than you. Don’t substitute pace for the nice. Phrases matter.
And the way do you get the evaluation, technique, and judgment to know whenever you received one thing good? Have an idea. Know what you are attempting to actually convey. Look to be concise.
One ultimate level: learn. Learn good books by authors who understand how use phrases successfully and memorably. It would provide help to to, as Supreme Court docket Justice Potter Stewart as soon as stated about obscenity in a well-known case, “realize it whenever you see it.”
Stephen Embry is a lawyer, speaker, blogger, and author. He publishes TechLaw Crossroads, a weblog dedicated to the examination of the stress between know-how, the regulation, and the apply of regulation.
