Hi, I’m David…
I’m a technologist, currently focused on generative AI, IoT, digital twins and the data that goes with them.
Lover of sci-fi. Co-owner of Molly & Steve, the dogs. Scottish, but in middle England.
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance and being to transform various sectors, the legal profession finds itself in the middle of simultaneous opportunities and threats. While some lawyers often view gen AI with scepticism, there's a pretty unique opportunity to embrace these tools as collaborative partners that can enhance the efficiency and quality of legal services in the UK.
AI is becoming more than just a buzzword, and conversational AI tools like ChatGPT are increasingly part of our day to day lives.
I use them every day. I've built a custom AI called "Metis" (inkeeping with my theme of giving these tools names relating to ancient greek gods - in this case, the god of wisdom, prudence and, in a lovely nod to Douglas Adams, deep thought), but I also regularly use ChatGPT and other tools. It just depends on what I'm working on.
As we continue to delve into the world of generative AI at work, I've been chatting with various people about how to integrate GPT-style tools into their day-to-day lives. There are all sorts of interesting ways to tease out use cases, test and measure their impact in the workplace (my day rates are reasonable, corporate clients...), but on a basic level, it's struck me that tons of people think of them as glorified search engines, and they often don't have clear use cases in mind.
I recently spoke at an internal Balfour Beatty Investments conference where I spoke about our AI strategy, and someone asked me... "Should you declare if you're using AI to generate content?" It also came up when I rambled at Multiverse students on an internal panel discussion on AI's potential impact on the employment market, and again this week on an internal call with some Balfour Beatty employees.
As we start to do various AI-shaped things at work, I've had a bit of a road-to-Damascus moment. I'd instinctively assumed that because language is the interface to the new (ish) breed of generative AI tools, that everyone would quickly get good results and understand the strengths and limitations of tools like ChatGPT. I was pretty wrong.