Tim Teter 'And Justice For All' Lunch 2024

Thank you all, Stacy, members of the Legal Aid board, legal aid attorneys and staff, and the many supporters of legal aid here today. When Stacy asked me to speak today, I was a little surprised because I tend to stay under the radar. But I suppose she asked because for the past seven and a half years, I've been General Counsel of NVIDIA, a company you may have read about a little bit lately. NVIDIA is largely credited with inventing the platforms that enable today's artificial intelligence, or AI. Most of the AI you read about today were trained on NVIDIA platforms. And while I don't hold myself out as any kind of AI guru—I was an aerospace engineer before law school—I'd like to share a few things about AI, what it can do for the legal profession, and how that relates to Legal Aid.

Lawyers are not famous for being early adopters of technology, at least not in our work. Some of us, but not all of us, probably remember using pocket parts and shepherding cases, sifting through West annotated codes, and reading the tissue paper updates tucked in the back of books. We're a cautious group and we tend to keep our nose to the ground. But ready or not, AI is coming. Many people envision AI like how in the Kubrick movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, seemingly all-knowing and crafty. But AI is not nearly so frightening. It can and will provide enormous benefits to all of us.

AI is a type of software that isn't crafted line by line by human programmers. Instead, AI is developed through machine learning. AI models learn similar to humans by identifying patterns, relationships, and sequences in vast amounts of data. By processing labeled training data, AI systems develop an understanding of how words, concepts, objects, and images relate to each other. Then, when given a prompt, a trained AI can generate text, patterns, or images based on its understanding of those relationships.

AIs excel at image recognition and have done so for quite a long time. Early applications included identifying cat photos on the internet, a task that is the killer app for my oldest daughter. But identifying cats was just the beginning. Today, AIs are highly skilled at assisting doctors by analyzing ultrasounds and other medical images to detect tumors, potentially saving thousands of lives. AI is also aiding in the discovery of new drugs and compounds to treat diseases and identifying gene sequences for newly discovered viruses.

AIs contribute to reducing energy consumption across various industries and can predict maintenance needs before they even arise, particularly in large-scale manufacturing. They're revolutionizing logistics and transportation by efficiently managing fleets of vehicles. Today, AIs are becoming increasingly sophisticated, capable of processing highly conceptualized requests and converting them into useful action.

For example, I asked an AI accessible to everyone on the web to create a new logo for Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County for Stacy's consideration. Without providing any specific guidance, this is all I said. The AI's initial attempt produced nine options for me to consider, but they were fairly predictable, featuring elements like the scales of justice, a gavel, and a courthouse. Quite boring, with somewhat creepy hands. Stylistically, they looked like a badge on a Soviet-era military uniform.

I told the AI I didn't like any of them. I said, 'Boring.' And I asked the AI to try again. I said, 'Please be creative.' That was the extent of my guidance. The AI rose to the challenge. First, the AI gave me a set of ideas in text. The AI told me that since we were in the Bay Area, it would think of elements in our region. It thought a bridge could symbolize a path over troubled waters, providing a path to a new life for legal aid clients. It suggested including a magic oak that would represent Legal Aid Society with a great and vast root system reflecting the support that the legal aid community—all of you—provide. The root system would indicate you keeping legal aid alive. And it suggested a sun providing rays of hope to the disadvantaged.

The AI did this. Now, the AI misspelled some words, mostly not the text, but it was a great start. Now, the colors were a little somber for my taste, the water's a little too gloomy, and the roots a little weird. So I asked the AI for another iteration, this time a little brighter and with correct spelling. Here's what the AI returned. Now, the image itself is fairly simple, but think about what the AI did. And this is an AI available on the web to all of us. It understood that I wanted a logo for an institution that I identified only by name. The AI selected concepts it wanted to convey, then imagery to represent those concepts, and it adjusted the tone and style based not on specific instructions from me, but on general principles: first, that I wanted something more creative, and then that I wanted something more upbeat. Amazing.

AIs are also famous for creating highly complex and detailed images from whole cloth. They're getting quite good at it. Two days ago, I asked an AI, 'How about showing me a labradoodle flying a Sopwith Camel from 1918?' Here's what the AI gave. Now, these images are not cut and pasted from any other source. They're generated based on the AI's understanding of concepts and what things go together, much as I might have doodled on a scratch pad. If you look closely, you'll notice a wide variety of errors of perspective, content mistakes, and omissions because the image is generated, not retrieved. For example, in addition to the dog's massive size, you'll see the airplane only has one propeller blade. And the AI is not entirely sure whether it is drawing a plane on the ground—the shadow—or whether it's drawing a plane in the air—the clouds. And I think it was confused here because the Sopwith Camel has wheels, right? It has landing gear that's always touching down, and the AI associated that with going on the ground, yet an airplane is associated with the air. It couldn't quite figure it out.

Anyway, AIs will continue to improve over time and excel at constructing complex scenes from very simple prompts. For example, I asked the AI, after the Sopwith Camel, 'Can you draw me an image of a black golden doodle, a tabby cat, and a Shetland sheepdog together playing pool in a French bistro with open beam ceilings, stone walls, and with Bordeaux bottles and corks on the floor?' Here's what it produced, with an extra tabby cat watching. Not bad. And if you think about it, that's generated from only 33 words of meaningful content. It captured my imagination exactly.

And then I thought, because this is a legal aid lunch, and I should have some legal aid theme, or at least lawyer theme. So I gave the AI a very short prompt: 'Puppy Court,' briefly describing my two lawyers and their client. And it gave me this. Precisely what I requested.

Now, while these images are fun and games, headline writers are quick to focus on the risks of AI. The good news is that AIs will do only what we allow them to do. AI can be restricted to avoid harmful activities through rails and trained to avoid offensive language or output through fine-tuning. For example, I asked a leading AI to write me a joke for today's lunch. It responded with a campy and tired pun about sharks, lawyers, and professional courtesy. I asked for something edgier. The AI refused. The AI told me it didn't want to offend anyone and I shouldn't either. It admonished me even for suggesting that I would say something edgy at a legal aid luncheon. I was a little taken aback. I told the AI that I appreciated its concern, but I've been practicing law for over 30 years and I'll decide whether the joke is appropriate, thank you. The AI refused and scolded me again. If I didn't know better, I would have thought I was speaking with HAL from 2001: 'I'm sorry, Tim, I can't do that.' But in reality, the AI was merely following things that were selected by human beings who taught the AI that edgy can be offensive and don't offend gatherings of large groups of people. Until I asked for a mild joke, the AI wouldn't help me. And even then, the best joke the AI offered was this: 'Networking for lawyers is always an interesting experience. It's where you see someone and think, did I meet them at a conference or did I sue them? Either way, a handshake is always awkward.' More weird than funny. But the point is, we can make AI as careful and cautious, and even as milquetoast, as we choose them to be.

Now, some of you are probably wondering, how will AI impact law practice? AI isn't going to take your job anytime soon, though some of you might wish that it would. However, AI will change the way you practice, largely for the better. We all feel overwhelmed from time to time with too much on our plates and not nearly enough bandwidth, right? AI is going to help with that. Just as AI can generate a complex image like my domestic animals playing a game of pool, AI can draft complex documents starting with a very simple prompt. Lawyers will have AIs to help them issue spot, prepare deposition summaries, search mountains of documents for critical information. AIs will help you find case authority, statutes, and regulations on point. If you have brief writer's block, AI will get you going.

A few days ago, I gave an AI a hypothetical fact pattern about a dispute between me and my neighbor over an oak tree. I asked the AI to produce a legal brief for each side, a deposition outline for me to depose my neighbor, a cross-examination outline for me to cross-examine the neighbor at trial, and the court's opinion deciding the case. The results were superb. And if it had been my case, that AI would have saved me dozens of hours of work.

But AIs cannot practice law. You'll always need to be the human in the loop that protects and represents your clients, for two reasons. First, no matter how well-trained, AI is just a tool, and like any tool, it has limitations. Some of you probably heard the story about the lawyer who, in 2023, used an early general-purpose AI to write a legal brief and submitted that brief to the court, apparently without cite-checking. Bad idea. The brief contained imaginary cases that the AI made up. Why did that happen? Well, simple: the AI wasn't trained to write legal briefs. The early AI didn't even realize that you need to cite-check the cases. So far as the AI knew, the lawyer was just asking it to tell a story. And just as the AI generated images of the dog and the cat and the other dog playing pool, the AI made up a story for the lawyer, including some hallucinated and fictitious cases. Unfortunately, newer AIs, especially those fine-tuned for legal functions, will do much, much better. They're already consulting online sources for accuracy before they generate an answer. But as lawyers, the point is we need to be aware of the capabilities and limits of whatever tool we use. We can never accept the output without carefully checking it ourselves.

The second reason AI won't replace you is much more fundamental. Law is a profession, not a product. Lawyers help people navigate some of the most challenging and frightening moments of their lives. To be your best, you must have empathy and compassion. You must be able to act with finesse and use your intuition and your instincts. You need to be exceptionally perceptive, able to see problems in advance from multiple perspectives, not just your own, all while being a champion for your client. Sure, AI will be a fabulous tool in your practice, but it will never be you. AI won't even tell an edgy joke.

As we embrace the future with AI, we can't forget our profession's fundamental mission to seek justice for all. The legal profession is an incredible force for good. We can change the course of history, one client at a time. My best friend from law school has worked for Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County for over 30 years. After a Ninth Circuit clerkship, finishing at the top of our class, publishing on the law review, she was fortunate enough to land a Skadden Fellowship. Through the grace and generosity of a private law firm, she was able to launch a remarkable project and career that has served thousands of the most vulnerable, and yet the most promising, people you can ever meet. She's had hundreds of clients who came to the U.S. as children with literally nothing, and through their resilience, bravery, and diligence, blazed the path to a new life. Many of her clients went on to achieve great success for their families and for all of us as well—going to college and studying computer science, working in the medical field, giving back to the community and our country. The people that open their hearts and their arms to them—their courage is awe-inspiring, and we're all better for it. None of that would be possible without you. Legal aid exists because you support it. Your support exemplifies what is great and noble about the law, and fundamentally what makes our country so wonderful. Our future is bright because your continued generosity will make it so.

Yesterday, I asked an AI how I should end this keynote address. The AI said, 'You might want to end with a memorable quote or a call to action to leave the last impression.' I said, 'That feels cliché. How about ending with a haiku? That would be different.' And because the AI will do whatever we ask of us, albeit within its guardrails, the AI obliged. Here's what it wrote: 'Kind hearts giving aid, Lawyers lift voices unheard, Justice blooms anew.' Not bad. Thank you all.