Panel #10 – The Ethical Implications for Using Artificial Intelligence*

Panel #10 – The Ethical Implications for Using Artificial Intelligence*

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The use of Artificial Intelligence while engaging in the practice of law is fraught with peril and pitfalls from an ethical standpoint. The ethical concerns presented by the use of artificial intelligence are not insurmountable, but do require practitioners to engage in serious forethought and consultation with clients prior to using these tools. Understanding how any particular AI solution collects, stores and uses the information provided seems a prerequisite to considering issues like confidentiality, and ultimately communicating with clients in order to obtain fully informed consent. For example, if you use a particular AI solution to craft a portion of a description for a patent application, will that AI internalize the information provided and continue to include that information as part of its corpus that it will learn from and pull from when engaging with future users? And aside from the ethical concerns there are practical concerns as well— how do you know where the information provided by the AI is coming from? Is the information being provided culled from competitors, and you are about to input that information into your patent application?

This panel will dive into the ethical and practical implications for using artificial intelligence as a tool in the practice of patent law specifically. We are honored to have Will Covey, the Director of the Office of Enrollment and Discipline (OED) at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, joining us. Mr. Covey will also provide an update on OED ethical enforcement activity and issues of concern or investigative focus that practitioners should consider.

Materials:

The Ethics of Using Generative Artificial Intelligence in the Practice of Law

Survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/prosecution-2023-panel-10