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Is ChatGPT Any Good at Legal Research – and Should We be Wary or Supportive of it?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2024

Greg Bennett
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Abstract

We have all heard horror stories of ChatGPT making information professionals redundant and taking over the world, but just how proficient is it at good old legal research? Greg Bennett, a law librarian at BPP, invested in the premium version of the package to put it to the test.

Keywords

Artificial intelligence (AI)legal researchlegal technology
Type
Main Features
Information
Legal Information Management , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , December 2023 , pp. 219 - 224
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by British and Irish Association of Law Librarians

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References

Endnotes

1 Daniel Martin Katz and others, ‘GPT-4 Passes the Bar Exam’ (15 March 2023) <https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=4389233> accessed 3 August 2023

2 Andrew Gilbert, ‘Revealed: Could ChatGPT Pass the SQE?’ (Law Society Gazette, 19 January 2023) <www.lawgazette.co.uk/commentary-and-opinion/revealed-could-chatgpt-pass-the-sqe/5114840.article> accessed 17 July 2023

3 Katz and others (n 1)

4 OpenAI, ‘ChatGPT Response to “Who Won the 2022/23 English Premier League?”’ (4 July 2023) <https://chat.openai.com/share/3b9be5db-bd0f-4046-b916-c1ae3a732f59>

5 Natalie Byrom, ‘AI Risks Deepening Unequal Access to Legal Information’ Financial Times (London, 17 July 2023) <www.ft.com/content/2aba82c0-a24b-4b5f-82d9-eed72d2b1011> accessed 20 July 2023

6 OpenAI, ‘ChatGPT Response to “What Does the Text of Section 224 of the Sentencing Act 2020 Say?”’ (4 July 2023) <https://chat.openai.com/share/71d130c4-b208-4f7a-a2d6-2b38b9338f40>

7 ibid.

8 ibid.

9 ibid.

10 OpenAI, ‘ChatGPT Response to “What Is the Relevant UK Law That Covers Unfair Dismissal during Maternity Leave?”’ (4 July 20223) <https://chat.openai.com/share/47e3a9bb-9ab7-471d-ab60-cedc79e4b4e8>.

11 ‘Dismissal during Pregnancy, or Maternity, Adoption or Shared Parental Leave’ (Working Families, 3 May 2023) <https://workingfamilies.org.uk/articles/dismissal-during-pregnancy-maternity-leave-or-soon-after/> accessed 4 July 2023

12 OpenAI, ‘ChatGPT Response to “What Is the Relevant UK Law That Covers Unfair Dismissal during Maternity Leave?”’ (n 10)

13 ibid.

14 legislation.gov.uk, ‘Employment Rights Act 1996, Section 99’ <www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/section/99> accessed 18 August 2023

15 OpenAI, ‘ChatGPT Response to “What Is the Relevant UK Law That Covers Unfair Dismissal during Maternity Leave?”’ (n 10)

16 Westlaw, ‘Employment Rights Act 1996, Section 99’ <https://uk.westlaw.com/Document/I51C5301059BD11DB899B8284D0D7430E/View/FullText.html>

17 John Hyde29 May 2023, ‘LiP Presents False Citations to Court after Asking ChatGPT’ (Law Society Gazette) <www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/lip-presents-false-citations-to-court-after-asking-chatgpt/5116143.article> accessed 17 July 2023

18 Craig Smith, ‘Hallucinations Could Blunt ChatGPT's Success - IEEE Spectrum’ (13 March 2023) <https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-hallucination> accessed 11 September 2023

19 OpenAI, ‘GPT-4’ <https://openai.com/gpt-4> accessed 11 September 2023

20 OpenAI, ‘ChatGPT Response to “What Is the Relevant UK Law That Covers Unfair Dismissal during Maternity Leave?”’ (n 10)

21 OpenAI, ‘ChatGPT Response to “What Are the Key Cases That Determine Whether a Barge Moored on a Piece of Land Is Annexed to That Land as a Fixture, or Whether It Is Merely a Chattel?”’ (4 July 2023) <https://chat.openai.com/share/a61c448d-984d-4fd6-91ea-0819f4bc129d>

22 ibid.

23 ibid.

24 ibid.

25 Bevan, Chris, ‘The Law of Fixtures and Chattels: Recalibration, Rationalisation and Reform’ (2022) 42 Legal Studies 358CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 Chris Bevan, ‘The Law of Fixtures and Chattels: Recalibration, Rationalisation and Reform - Pre-Print Version’ (Durham Research Online, 2022) <https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/preview/1220717/34765.pdf> accessed 18 August 2023

27 Emily Dreibelbis, ‘“Browse With Bing” Disabled on ChatGPT Plus Because It Bypassed Paywalls’ (PCMag UK, 5 July 2023) <https://uk.pcmag.com/ai/147625/browse-with-bing-disabled-on-chatgpt-plus-because-it-bypassed-paywalls> accessed 24 July 2023

28 Maria Diaz, ‘ChatGPT Browsing Feature Deactivated Only a Week after Roll out - Here's Why’ (ZD Net, 5 July 2023) <www.zdnet.com/article/chatgpt-browsing-feature-paused-after-users-bypassed-paywalls> accessed 24 July 2023

29 Dreibelbis (n 27)

30 OpenAI, ‘We've Learned That ChatGPT's “Browse” Beta Can Occasionally Display Content in Ways We Don't Want…’ <https://twitter.com/OpenAI/status/1676072388436594688> accessed 31 August 2023