Data Privacy And Security With Gen AI Models

A June 2024 survey of data privacy professionals found that the rising use of artificial intelligence is the number-one privacy risk facing companies today, according to a story in Law360.

Concerns about data privacy and data security are especially heightened with the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) tools in the legal industry, which enables legal professionals to quickly obtain AI-generated text in response to research queries or requests for summaries of lengthy documents. These are the types of concerns that have led many in the industry to gravitate toward Legal AI, Gen AI tools trained for the legal profession.

There are some important differences between the commercially available Legal AI solutions on the market, so prospective buyers of these tools need to know how each of these Gen AI models approaches data privacy and security considerations.

We recently published “The Definitive Guide to Choosing a Gen AI Legal Research Solution,” a free buyer’s guide that details what law firms and in-house legal departments should look for so they can select the most appropriate solution for their organization. One of the pillars we addressed in the guide is the importance of Privacy & Security.

Six core concerns

The rise of powerful Gen AI models that can create synthetic media, text, code and other content raises important questions around privacy and security. These systems leverage large datasets and can mimic existing content and styles.

This makes it essential for your team to thoughtfully address certain privacy and security risks that can threaten the safety of your organization and/or clients. Here are six core concerns that you should contemplate:

• Data privacy — Law firms operate in a world of confidentiality and client data (e.g., financial records, strategic plans, etc.) must be fiercely protected. You need to know how training data for the Gen AI model is obtained and used.
  Attribution — It is crucial that any source materials surfaced by the Gen AI model are properly credited. Any legal document must be attributed to a human lawyer for it to be considered ethically acceptable by the courts; this requires that users have sufficient information in their hands to verify the accuracy of all AI-generated content.
• Data bias — There is a risk of perpetuating unfair biases in the Gen AI model training data. AI algorithms learn from the data they are fed, so if that data contains inherent biases the Legal AI tool may incorporate them in its outputs.
• Transparency — Understanding the reasoning behind an AI tool’s answers helps lawyers identify and mitigate potential biases or inaccuracies. Beware of any Gen AI model that provides a lack of detail about how it works.
• Misinformation — All legal professionals are by now aware of the risk of Gen AI models in creating convincing fake or misleading content. The rules of professional responsibility dictate that lawyers are ultimately responsible for the accuracy and completeness of their legal work product.
• Regulation — The track record and reliability of an AI developer is important if legal practitioners are going to be able to trust their knowledge of the legal domain. Make sure your Gen AI model was built with thoughtful rules and governance of the technology.

Questions to ask about privacy and security

When evaluating a Legal AI solution, you need to ask a few important questions about how the model is trained and how your data is handled, such as the following:

• Will my search history and usage information be stored or used to train the model?
• How does your Gen AI solution address the security concerns related to ChatGPT?
• How does your Gen AI solution protect customers’ intellectual property and your own?
• What data security measures are in place for any original generated content?
• What safeguards exist to prevent exposure of privileged or confidential client information through AI-generated content?

Evaluate Lexis+ AI

Lexis+ AI is our breakthrough Gen AI solution that we believe will transform legal work by providing a suite of legal research, drafting, and summarization tools that delivers on the potential of Gen AI technology.

Lexis+ AI pairs our unsurpassed legal content with breakthrough Gen AI technology in a way that could redefine the way that legal research is conducted and legal work product is created. Its answers are grounded in the world’s largest repository of accurate and exclusive legal content from LexisNexis with industry-leading data security and attention to privacy. Click here to request a free trial.

To download a free copy of The Definitive Guide to Choosing a Gen AI Legal Research Solution, please click here.