Arizona State University is training new lawyers how to use artificial intelligence responsibly in the legal field.

The American Bar Association reports at least 80% of attorneys use AI at least once a day and until now, the rules around the technology have been fairly loose. Because AI is changing so quickly, many universities have completely banned the use of AI in the first year of law school.

Sean Harrington, director of the AI and Legal Tech Studio at Arizona State University, said it is important to train new law students to use AI properly.

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"Because if used improperly in the context of litigation, it could go really bad," Harrington cautioned. "Somebody could lose their house, somebody could lose custody of their kids, somebody could go to prison. So the stakes are really high in law. I think that was one of the reasons that attorneys were initially fairly skeptical."

The American Bar Association reported the use of AI in law firms is increasing every year and has shifted rapidly from experimentation to daily, real-world work. The association said the future of responsible AI use in the legal field depends on a combination of secure integration and trusted human oversight.

Despite its rapid growth, some law schools are not incorporating AI into their first-year curricula at all, including Berkeley Law and the University of Chicago, which Harrington believes is the wrong approach. AI is here to stay, he argued, so Arizona State is embracing teaching and using it thoughtfully, ethically and effectively.

"We want our students to come out of here 100% comfortable with using the technology in high-stakes settings and not make it something that is blackballed," Harrington emphasized.

Harrington noted the university is giving its law students the academic credentials they need to use AI in the field while also providing clinical and practical experience in the classroom before they start making potentially life-altering decisions for their clients in the real world.