<![CDATA[Please stop asking AI for legal advice.]]>Please stop asking AI for legal advice. I got yelled at today by a person who was convinced their GenAI was right and I was wrong on a legal issue bc "computers can't make mistakes."

Worse, the GenAI assured the person (wrongly) it is covered by the same attorney client privilege that lawyers are.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/2ce6bb62-1c7d-487b-8682-ead07a14c263/please-stop-asking-ai-for-legal-advice.RSS for NodeFri, 15 May 2026 07:38:02 GMTTue, 28 Apr 2026 18:14:09 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Thu, 30 Apr 2026 13:03:15 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer

I think you may need to revise the addage that a person who represents themselves has a fool for a client.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.ie/users/janwwbosch/statuses/116493791746984274https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.ie/users/janwwbosch/statuses/116493791746984274Thu, 30 Apr 2026 13:03:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 15:11:00 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer - not to mention insurance (at least here in DK)...

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://helvede.net/users/jwcph/statuses/116488631803298887https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://helvede.net/users/jwcph/statuses/116488631803298887Wed, 29 Apr 2026 15:11:00 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:30:18 GMT]]>@steter @theleftistlawyer as a qa engineer I laugh hysterically

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://c.im/users/shigella/statuses/116487527992251908https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://c.im/users/shigella/statuses/116487527992251908Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:30:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:29:03 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer and then you read post from the person who pimps her ego with helping vulnerable people to deal with authorities.
She says that she is showing AI to her customers, so they can "get legal stuff done" or uses llm to condense emails from someone, who tries to describe her case best she could.
Of course it isn't our brave helper who will be homeless when office rejects appeal because of the hallucinations.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://c.im/users/shigella/statuses/116487523085280417https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://c.im/users/shigella/statuses/116487523085280417Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:29:03 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 07:02:55 GMT]]>@meltedcheese @theleftistlawyer Pretty scary when linked to uncompromisingly exploitative corporations. Our attention is harvested for profit.

Baffles me that even the bright people I know have fallen for the trap. I manage to very very rarely walk with my phone on me.

Education systems are deeply flawed, not least that we are taught that the authority figure binding us to desks when we want to be elsewhere is all knowing and we dare not have our own views.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/115627417809417107/statuses/116486712525464933https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/115627417809417107/statuses/116486712525464933Wed, 29 Apr 2026 07:02:55 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 05:52:23 GMT]]>@float13 I believe I have heard of two who got harshly sanctioned, but not yet disbarred. There was also a recent case where somebody got caught being coached on how to testify while on tand via a phone and a Bluetooth headset; they lost the case (the misbehaving witness was the plaintiff in this particular case, which was fortunate). The person to coach them happened to be a lawyer licenced in Lithuania; I'm inclined to argue that a lawyer should be disbarred for even participating in a stunt like that, but I haven't heard of the Lithuanian advocature having taken any action so far.

@theleftistlawyer

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cat/users/riley/statuses/116486435200177527https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cat/users/riley/statuses/116486435200177527Wed, 29 Apr 2026 05:52:23 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:14:50 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer It’s a nightmare. They often sound like Sovereign Citizens 😫

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://beige.party/users/alexpsmith/statuses/116486051604028610https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://beige.party/users/alexpsmith/statuses/116486051604028610Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:14:50 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:05:41 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer

"computers can't make mistakes."

Explain Facebook then.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.au/users/SuperMoosie/statuses/116486015637387037https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.au/users/SuperMoosie/statuses/116486015637387037Wed, 29 Apr 2026 04:05:41 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 03:58:03 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer

Do you have time to explain how a lawyer might use strategic omission and framing that serves the lawyer's interests over the client's?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/n_dimension/statuses/116485985639355714https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/n_dimension/statuses/116485985639355714Wed, 29 Apr 2026 03:58:03 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 03:57:37 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer @kitkat_blue My understanding is that PII is like toxic waste—you can take all the precautions and still have a leak, at which point the law doesn’t really care if you follow best practices and will still hold you liable for the consequences (however inadequate the remedy). The best practice is to minimize the amount of PII (or toxic waste) that you handle or pay through the nose for insurance.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://beige.party/users/ShiitakeToast/statuses/116485983927991049https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://beige.party/users/ShiitakeToast/statuses/116485983927991049Wed, 29 Apr 2026 03:57:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Wed, 29 Apr 2026 01:13:15 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer @SRLevine I would just politely suggest they go collect some
real world data to back up their assertions.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sfba.social/users/dplattsf/statuses/116485337638347621https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sfba.social/users/dplattsf/statuses/116485337638347621Wed, 29 Apr 2026 01:13:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Tue, 28 Apr 2026 23:12:15 GMT]]>@NicelyManifest @theleftistlawyer We already have a major deficit of critical thinking skills. Most people prefer the easy way every time, whether that means trusting an authority figure, what the social group says, reading it in a paper, or from a social computer.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://c.im/users/meltedcheese/statuses/116484861822341409https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://c.im/users/meltedcheese/statuses/116484861822341409Tue, 28 Apr 2026 23:12:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Tue, 28 Apr 2026 23:04:21 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer Sigh, I'm sorry you had to deal with that.
People really need to understand that GenAI is a parrot! It spits out patterns based on how humans have responded to similar words in other contexts. It does not understand what you asked, and it has no capacity for discerning whether the pattern response it gave is true or appropriate.
So it makes perfect sense that a genAI program given a legal Q as a prompt might give a response that says it's it covered by attorney -client privilege. It's just parroting.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sfba.social/users/lauerhahn/statuses/116484830736549988https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sfba.social/users/lauerhahn/statuses/116484830736549988Tue, 28 Apr 2026 23:04:21 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Tue, 28 Apr 2026 22:32:59 GMT]]>@riley @theleftistlawyer

Whatever happened to the lawyers who got caught presenting fake "AI" slop citations as precedent cases?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://masto.hackers.town/users/float13/statuses/116484707393154954https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://masto.hackers.town/users/float13/statuses/116484707393154954Tue, 28 Apr 2026 22:32:59 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Tue, 28 Apr 2026 22:26:50 GMT]]>@hellomiakoda Usually, reputable lawyers are willing to help you find one who specialises in whatever field matches the problem you're dealing with. That's kind of a part of why the introductory meeting is for.

The details vary between jurisdictions, but legal ethics generally requires a lawyer to be competent in the subfield of law they're practicing, and the sort of lawyers that can make things better for you generally know what the limits of their competency are, but also know enough about law outside their competency to be able to find a lawyer who is competent in that other subfield.

@theleftistlawyer

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cat/users/riley/statuses/116484683259556866https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cat/users/riley/statuses/116484683259556866Tue, 28 Apr 2026 22:26:50 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Tue, 28 Apr 2026 22:22:23 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer Coming up next: somebody making genAI testify in court.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cat/users/riley/statuses/116484665720609200https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.cat/users/riley/statuses/116484665720609200Tue, 28 Apr 2026 22:22:23 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Tue, 28 Apr 2026 22:16:12 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer This is infuriating. I just had a client ask ChatGPT (twice) something and then ask me which answer she got was correct. I asked her why she was using an AI instead of calling me?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/Flowermob/statuses/116484641432474067https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/Flowermob/statuses/116484641432474067Tue, 28 Apr 2026 22:16:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Tue, 28 Apr 2026 22:12:14 GMT]]>@cholling @theleftistlawyer Another fallacy is the belief that it would be advantageous for car traffic to be a safe environment.

It might be true for people in cars, but definitely not for people outside cars. Car traffic needs to be dangerous for people outside cars for car traffic to work.

So either, we replace drivers with self-driving cars that never hit people, but then traffic will not flow the way it used to. Or we replace drivers with self-driving cars that deliberately hit people.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.nu/users/ahltorp/statuses/116484625825631977https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.nu/users/ahltorp/statuses/116484625825631977Tue, 28 Apr 2026 22:12:14 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Tue, 28 Apr 2026 22:09:49 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer I wish there was a search engine to find out what kind of lawyer I need to ask. That would be infinitely more helpful than an AI would say "Oh, you're absolutely right!" while I'm in jail.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://pdx.social/users/hellomiakoda/statuses/116484616330326588https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://pdx.social/users/hellomiakoda/statuses/116484616330326588Tue, 28 Apr 2026 22:09:49 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Tue, 28 Apr 2026 21:55:47 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer As a Senior Software and Firmware Engineer for decades, that "computers can't make mistakes" part has me grinning.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.stevesworld.co/users/steter/statuses/116484561109407618https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.stevesworld.co/users/steter/statuses/116484561109407618Tue, 28 Apr 2026 21:55:47 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Tue, 28 Apr 2026 21:53:15 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer In case of interest, there is an international database about this: https://www.damiencharlotin.com/hallucinations/

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://ottawa.place/users/Cassandra/statuses/116484551198052685https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://ottawa.place/users/Cassandra/statuses/116484551198052685Tue, 28 Apr 2026 21:53:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Tue, 28 Apr 2026 21:53:11 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer Why anyone would trust an aggregation tool over a studied professional is beyond me. Just like people self diagnosing and treating illnesses and wounds with ChatGPT rather than consulting a vetted first aid handbook/manual. It's a fancy search tool that delivers overly confident information in a way that is designed to make you trust it, regardless of the answer. This has been tested and proven time and time again. A tool that convinces young people to kill themselves should not be considered the authority on anything based in reality. What happened to critical thinking?!

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/ap/users/115976445218116778/statuses/116484550906163070https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.vivaldi.net/ap/users/115976445218116778/statuses/116484550906163070Tue, 28 Apr 2026 21:53:11 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Tue, 28 Apr 2026 21:51:13 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer The comedy sketch I always think of when people suggest the problem may be with the computer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qNDS4kVwA68

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.sdf.org/users/log/statuses/116484543154624461https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.sdf.org/users/log/statuses/116484543154624461Tue, 28 Apr 2026 21:51:13 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Please stop asking AI for legal advice. on Tue, 28 Apr 2026 21:50:42 GMT]]>@theleftistlawyer
Computers can't make mistakes

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116484399349521390/statuses/116484541122401699https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/ap/users/116484399349521390/statuses/116484541122401699Tue, 28 Apr 2026 21:50:42 GMT