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Artificial Intelligence [AI] and Legal Research

This guide is intended to introduce new law students, as well as law students who need a refresher on the topic, to the concepts of researching using AI.

The Five P's - The Research Plan for AI

When conducting computer-assisted or bibliographic legal research, a researcher is either (1) learning a computer-mathematical language that an online database speaks and must receive instructions in or (2) learning the organizational and resource layout that exist in a library setting in order to navigate to and locate the sources they are seeking. In both cases, the researcher uses their own intelligence and memory to navigate and "game" the system of research to find what they are seeking.

On the other hand, when conducting AI-powered legal research, a researcher is asking questions to an LLM's algorithm. Therefore, the researcher is not trying to think like a database and translate what they want to search for into the database's language OR trying to remember the organizational/resource layout of the library they are in. What researchers ARE doing in doing AI-powered legal research is that they're asking questions, or, prompting an AI LLM's algorithm to find the researcher their sought sources.

So, how does one prompt an algorithm to find the resources one is seeking? If in computer-assisted or bibliographic legal research a researcher would use a research plan, then in AI-powered legal researcher, the researcher uses The Five P's:

  1. Prime
    1. Think about the major points of law, key issues, material facts, etc.
    2. In other words, what are the big issues you need to include in your prompt?
  2. Persona
    1. Think about your point of view in asking the question.
    2. In other words, which parties do you represent, if any, and whether this would affect the questions you might ask?
  3. Prompt
    1. Think about the goal, or purpose, or point of view of the assignment.
    2. In other words, what question is your assignment trying to get you to answer and will the prompt you're writing answer it?
  4. Product
    1. Think about the expected output format you in which want the algorithm to reply to your prompt.
    2. In other words, because the algorithm can adjust its output, which type of output does this assignment require?
  5. Polish
    1. Think about small revisions you can make to narrow, expand, or pivot your research.
    2. In other words, which details can you add to make sure the algorithm is considering all that you want it to.
  6.  

Researching Using AI