APPLE HIRES LAWYERS FOR DEVELOPERS + DEVELOPMENT
"Twin Teams" IS the Way Forward in Technical SME AI
A simple HR post from Apple has caused quite the stir on X.
All it did was say, “Apple is hiring Senior Lawyers for Developer Relations.”
People are losing their minds on X.
WHAT??? WHAT IS THIS???? WHAT HAVE LAWYERS HAVE TO DO WITH DEVELOPERS???????????!!!!!
To my friends who have been reading here, this is no great surprise at all. In fact it is predictable that a leading company like Apple would make this interdisciplinary collaborative pivot. Apple is making great moves with AI.
Yes, Developer Relations is now lawyers.
Obviously more to the story with Tim Sweeney in particular, maybe get into later. Yet this means more than advising on software copyright challenges. Shrewd.
Apple made press simply with a job posting.
To many it came as a great confounding surprise. Disconsonant, mis-matched, maybe even waste? What has a lawyer to do with a developer? We are “outside of forms” these days and those stuck in silos miss the script.
To others, viewing the "writing on the wall", we can see how since the law is data, and the new law is code-based. Frankly, it doesn't only make sense to match lawyers with developers, it doesn't make sense anymore to NOT do so.
As I have been writing, the key modality in professional fields like medicine, education, and law is to form "twin teams." These are teams where the developer can qa the code, and the SME can qa the content.
If you think about it, nothing else can do it. The ad call also requests specifically “Open Source” experience.
Developers would have no more luck building Legal AI than would a lawyer have same.
I'm learning this these months the hard way, and also in some of the easy ways.
The future of AI and AI+Law is bright with intimate, localized, discrete expert, p2p, open source "twin teams."
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[This is why Apple Apple #Apple remains a leader; discipline agnostic answer-finders.
Here is the listing itself and excerpted below
Primary responsibilities include advising on a wide variety of issues related to software developers, software tools and technologies for developers to build apps, and platforms for distributing and managing app-based businesses. You will collaborate with other legal groups and cross-functional product, business, and engineering teams to serve as product counsel on a wide variety of tools, technologies, and programs; strategize and advise on regulatory compliance; and draft complex software licenses, development agreements, and program terms. This role will also include advising cross-functional teams on Digital Markets Act implementation and compliance. The candidate will need to both work well with colleagues in California as well as other teams based around the world.