Law Society’s concerns over Google’s AI tool
The Law Society has warned the public that Google’s AI technology is generating incorrect information about disciplinary findings against solicitors.
The warning relates to the ‘AI Overview’ that often appears at the top of results generated by Google’s search engine.
The solicitors’ representative body has raised the issue with the company.
In several cases, the internet search engine provided results that claimed that certain solicitors had been struck off when, in fact, they had not.
Following mounting concern within the profession over the accuracy of ‘AI Overview’, the Law Society conducted its own tests to assess the tool’s reliability.
Experiment
One experiment asked the search engine to name the last five solicitors struck off the roll. It returned a list in which four of the five individuals had never been struck off.
Also disturbing was the fact that the AI tool erroneously cited the Law Society’s website as its source – a claim the Society says is wholly misleading.
While the organisation does host a public register of solicitors’ disciplinary records, it is the Legal Services Regulatory Authority – not the Law Society – that bears statutory responsibility for publishing official findings.
In a statement issued on its website last Friday, the Law Society said: “It is not uncommon for the Law Society’s members and the general public to use a search engine to ascertain details of a solicitor.
“They are entitled to be provided with information that is true, accurate, and correctly identifies the solicitor’s status,” it said.