What is Project gist?
Remake Law, a Restatement of Why What How Who (Me)
"it's just nothing. it's just everything"
I said where I am going at the beginning of the year.
Now at the end of year, and the beginning of the new, I am doing what I said.
what’s the difference between a lawyer and a developer?
one works very late hours, drinks tons of diet coke, dresses down to focus on grinding to produce what is esoteric to many, but the right build for the right application. the other is a developer.
we think of them as so different usually and they don’t always get along well. and yet there is an affinity between developers and lawyers, in personality and temperament, despite their distinctions, almost like oil and vinegar. naturally separated — each essential in its own character and field — but i think here and now together a beautiful collaboration needed for the good of Law and the world.
and it may become strictly necessary for peace at least in the commercial and data spaces;
for law to not make war upon technology. as i have written before,
there is a war ongoing between the lawyers and the developers
, with battles certain in the future.
see how ai will get its pants sued off in copyright
data "holders" that made life heck for ventures like ross
other folk i know who built "white elephants" which are bestilled by a stack of cease and desist + royalty schedules, unnegotiable
at the same time, the world is beginning to see the threads on those with "market (or other official) permission" - institutionalized
,
both in its gaps and in its limitations and increasingly in its (imagined) “dangers.”
the black box ai solution promising "free agi tomorrow"
serve a lot, do not serve many of the use cases, nor thready entrepreneurs building for same
at a time in history where we have left behind "might build" for "must build"
this no more so true than in the ai + law space.
i know, because i knew before ai was here. 22 years of seeing clients and others go through "rigamarole" with the old modalities of law practice;
'pay the .10 or we are outta here'
'don't talk. i don't want to hear it.'
'when i need something from you, i will let you know (and bill for it)'
may be the slowest migrating profession the world has ever known.
[slower than medicine, yet even medicine came of age digitially with medscape a generation ago, and they've got real bodies and blood]
with law there is good reason$.
harvard business school once called the modern law firm the “most successful profit center in history.” it seems to be the case.
and yet a goodly portion of the recently reigning model of law has been built upon certain (now archaic) modes and conventions:
commercial real estate to impress, wide office views on pretty metros, and corresponding debt leverage (we'll bill even more),
‘conventions of finery’ intentionally making lawyer and client alien (the tassled loafers which distinguish, the Bottega Veneta intrecciato leather valise to stylistically game, the wining and dining and ‘white glove treatment’ to impress clients...the sophisticated ones only limitation in seeing is the ego),
perfected and honed irl physical task expertise down to the gesture/inflection/motion in physical spaces like courtrooms and boardrooms (“welcome to the 16” zoom screen, counselor!”),
restriction (reservation) of information [an arbitrage of data] and expertise from client in sole or primary possession of lawyer-as-priest in the tent of sacrifice, only, and
the billable hour and cost structures built thereupon, which *can* result in an arbitrage of interests between lawyer and client (with the one maximizing while other valiantly trying unsuccessfully at minimization)
…each and all of these are presently largely obsolete in a post-pandemic permanent-changes-era.
[add what is about to happen in America, beginning jan 2025 its first every overhaul]
the era of global ai (as progress, as policy, as real politik) begins
save from debt / needed for energy / energy needed therefor / language translation coming of age such that the whole world will have ONE conversation data-backed,
a GUDA - Global Unified Data Age
developers have long been the chosen engines of dislodgement, disruption - civilizational migration since clocks, since television, since the Internet, then apps, now bots…
lawyers bring the goods, the original large language modelers, to parse our most precious datasets to free and liberate humans and business and government and more
a whole new modality for the Law is called for
developers and technology will take the practice of law along with them for a ride [and they, them] whether they or anyone else like it or not as ai transforms consumption and exercise of our data (law is data) in this new “age of data”. kicking, screaming, fighting. recriminations via suggested and nebulous dark future paradigms as yet known, except just known to be feared and regulated ab initio or functionally or practically regulated into approved corporate and product-privatization silo neighborhoods —
"data neigborhoods"
its war or peace and peace kept by parameters stated and defended
so it will be war, or else it will be a beautiful marriage. fear of ai dangers, in the law or otherwise, especially the mythical dangers (suggested inchoate ones), must not formally (to the extent we can help it) halt our hand in growing technologically. and why not choose love over war?
for law it shall be a new modality, where the law of data (expert) gets translated into the immediately accessible
i’m an
(#e/acc) so far as ai + law is concerned.
i’m a non technical (even though I consider the law to be plenty technical).
i see the great promise to make the law which i love and have devoted my career to even greater and more professional,
delivering more while asking less of the individual,
less showtime and more go time,
ensuring greater access to justice (#a2j) for all,
allergically eschewing new built big box technical structures of ‘law walls,’
instead of the bridges they told us we are supposed to be building.
and, we will.
we are.
as it provides for the critical tools for the next stages of development for the practice and the good of mankind.
if one can argue that ai-science or ai-socialmedia or ai-
should not be restricted-access to the public,
= how much more is this so in the law (that institution which gives life-blood to freedom and critical knowledge for humankind)?
ignorance of the law may be no excuse.
yet ignorance of the law gets more expensive compared to even lawyer fees, and on the least who can sometimes afford it, have you seen?
so here is a modest proposal for ai + law in these sentiments, and along these lines -
let us build gists =
10000 devs + 10000 lawyers (a good start); each joined into must-be two person teams, localized to need and interest, for small builds, and to qa their respective disciplines together to ensure ux, reliability of information, and functionality/helpfulness of the tech, a start
guerillai builds everywhere anywhere in the world under a wise template with guidance/support,
"just" singular lawbots for discrete subject silos (divorce in michigan, capital raise in singapore, public benefits in uniquely multi-pluralist-law canada, did you know uk and usa law is often used to supplement canadian law?),
small is the new big, discrete topics are best - just the gist of a particular area
don’t throw the whole internet into it, or a giantly massive llm w so much noise.
build in a less-is-more-alignment (lima) orientation (#slm, not llm). its amazing what comprehensive meaning can be refined collected and delivered simply w fewer inputs
this is done each year by lawyers for lawyers with lawyers’ bar examination prep (i still have my outlines).
open source and just use the platform that the particular developer is most proficient with/at - best built according to their competence
working w the area of law in which the +lawyer is most proficient; a transmission of thoughtware masquerading as software
employment for developers, worldwide
to build out (expand) the technology class of ai
a new way to law for lawyers, new training, and modes of communication + delivery of skill + insights
sharing Law instantly for the public benefit
a smarter world for better clients, better companies, better humans
1m mini “retail law schools” “nano law schools”
brought together in one place “a dating service for robots”
a brand new law ai ecosystem with new job descriptions, applications, and use cases
[* not a substitute for a legal representation, an augmentation thereof]
every lawyer-citizen duty to pro bono help in the conveyance of law to the public at large through these newly available means
growing mankind’s knowledge and understanding of the law
it will sharpen lawyers
serving the cause of law - that institution which is singularly freeing, confining, and empowering, and
which will lead to the adaptation and advancement of the law overall in both law and ai technologies, product and whole new companies/industries/job roles development, growing of technical and legal human skill and learning, acceleration of critical human knowledge across the board; projects, people, patrons, enterprises - humankind
law has always been the sole institution to perform the function of unlocking and enabling human action and overcoming differences, prejudice, and injustice; protecting us, enabling our venture and our lives
gist = os p2p slm p2c p2b with provenance vintage and specificity digital ai law
wouldn’t more access to law be better? isn’t this really a professional responsibility as well? isnt now the time?
we owe Law past and the future. its time to build. LAW REMADE.
