Happy Holidays from our Bailey & Glasser, LLP family to yours.
As we celebrate the holiday season, we look back upon 2023 with gratitude and look forward to a new year full of happiness, joy, and health for you, your families, and your communities. We are deeply grateful to everyone for being part of our lives, and we look forward to being of service in 2024 and beyond.
Please enjoy a special holiday message from Bailey Glasser co-founder Ben Bailey here.
#HappyHolidays
Today we announce that 42 Bailey Glasser lawyers have been recognized across various categories (including one as a “Lawyer of the Year”) in the 30th edition of The Best Lawyers in America® and the fourth edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America®.
“Lawyer of the Year” honors are awarded annually to only one lawyer per practice area in each region with extremely high overall feedback from their peers, making it an exceptional distinction.
For more, follow this link.
Introduction
Recent breakthroughs in generative artificial intelligence (AI) have captured significant media attention. Developers argue that the technology, which learns from data to produce new text, visual, or audio content based on a user’s prompt, will turbocharge productivity and revolutionize business. Organizations in sectors ranging from banking to health care to journalism are already exploring integrating tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot and DALL-E image generator into their workplaces.
These new tools should be approached with a great deal of caution as introducing generative AI into your business could create a complex minefield of legal risks. The technology raises significant dangers related to breaches of confidentiality and data privacy, intellectual property infringement, obligations to consumers, and liabilities for negligence, defamation, or discrimination related to the use of false or biased information.
Earlier in June, a Manhattan lawyer faced sanctions in federal court for filing a legal brief generated by ChatGPT which included several citations to nonexistent cases. After being scolded by the judge for relying on “legal gibberish” generated by AI, the attorney admitted that he had no idea that ChatGPT could fabricate cases. At a recent United States Senate hearing on the dangers of AI and potential regulatory safeguards, OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, practically begged lawmakers to create a new AI regulatory agency that would license, test, and screen AI models. This is an unprecedented act by a tech leader. Around the world, authorities are eager to tighten regulations related to AI and changes may be on the horizon.
In this article, legal dangers related to the use of generative AI will be discussed in five specific areas: confidentiality and data privacy, intellectual property, obligations to consumers, false information, and bias and discrimination.
Generative AI and Gibberish
Artificial intelligence generally refers to technology that utilizes data to perform tasks typically done by humans, such as analysis, pattern-recognition, and prediction. One particular subset of AI technology—generative AI—is responsible for the current cultural and corporate metamorphosis. Of the fleet of emerging generative AI products, ChatGPT has grabbed the greatest share of headlines. AI developer OpenAI released the online chatbot in November 2022, with bankrolling from Microsoft. The company launched an update, GPT-4, in March 2023.
ChatGPT has impressed—and even stunned—with its ability to create unique content that sounds convincingly human. OpenAI’s system and rival tools from Google and Bing are what AI developers call “large language models” (LLMs). Using a huge library of text data that includes books, articles, research papers, blogs, and social media posts, LLMs are “trained” to decode, analyze, and produce language.These AI applications can process and respond to a user’s prompts in an instant. They’re capable of handling requests that are far more sophisticated than simple web searches.
For instance, ChatGPT will eagerly respond to an essay question on the Roman Empire, craft a Shakespearean sonnet about any subject, suggest improvements to computer code, or devise a reply to your mother-in-law’s email. Other popular generative AI models can design graphic art, replicate voices, produce songs, or even put together a rudimentary sitcom episode. Many of these new tools are widely available online and at no charge, or with a relatively modest subscription fee.
An Overview of Select Legal Risks
The power of generative AI technology is already transforming the workforce, and in ways we never could have imagined just a year ago. LLMs like ChatGPT are now instantly finishing certain research, analysis, writing, or administrative tasks that would take hours for a human employee to complete. However, the risks associated with implementing generative AI tools are extensive and demand careful consideration. We are continuing to monitor developing elements of these risks as they unfold.
At Bailey Glasser, our attorneys are dedicated to serving our local communities. BG Partner Travis Prince has been named a Program Lead at Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc. (“PHWFF”). PHWFF is a nationwide non-profit committed to providing full-spectrum fly fishing programming for disabled veterans and is an innovative leader in the field of therapeutic outdoor recreation for the disabled. In this role, Travis is responsible for the coordination of programming for veterans and the gracious volunteers of the Morgantown, WV chapter.
Every February, Bailey Glasser honors Black History Month. As part of our commemoration, we post all month long across our social media channels a selection of Black Americans who made impactful contributions in all the states where our law firm have offices. Please enjoy this short video that highlight’s this year’s social media posts for this important month.
As noted at the end of this video: ”Won’t it be wonderful when Black history and Native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history.” Maya Angelou
Happy New Year! We hope you enjoy this special New Year’s message from our firm. We are deeply grateful for everyone’s friendship and the work we have done together, and we wish you good health and good tidings in 2023!
U.S. District Court Chief Judge John McConnell, Jr., approved a stipulated order in Cohen v. Brown University, the landmark Title IX case, requiring Brown University to pay $1,135,000 for the attorneys’ fees and $40,000 for the litigation expenses incurred by the class of women student-athletes who challenged the school’s elimination of women’s teams from its varsity intercollegiate athletics program in June 2020.
“This order should send a message to schools nationwide,” said partner Arthur Bryant of Bailey & Glasser, LLP, class counsel for the women. “Title IX is the law. It prohibits sex discrimination. If schools violate Title IX, they will pay. If schools violate Title IX, refuse to admit it, and fight in the courts, they will pay more. And they’ll still have to comply with the law.”
Class counsel Lynette Labinger, cooperating counsel for the ACLU Foundation of Rhode Island, said, “Countless women locally and nationally have benefitted from the efforts of the women at Brown who have championed this case over three decades through to its current conclusion. We hope that this substantial award, coming after the restoration of two of the women’s teams and the obligation to cut no more, will send a message to all colleges and universities in Rhode Island and elsewhere to carefully examine their athletic programs, renew their commitment to ensure that their women athletes are being treated fairly and equitably, and to recognize that decisions to cut programs to save money may prove more costly than the projected savings themselves.”
In 1992, women student-athletes successfully sued Brown for denying them athletic opportunities provided to Brown’s men, resulting in several precedent-setting decisions that held the school accountable for violating Title IX by depriving women of equal opportunities to participate, and a 1998 consent decree mandating compliance with that law. In 2020, the plaintiff class returned to court, charging that the elimination of five women’s teams violated the 1998 consent decree.
BG partner and ERISA litigator Mark Boyko was recently quoted in a PlanSponsor article discussing ERISA pleading standards and employee rights, including the right of plan participants to request certain key documents about their retirement plans and can help evaluate whether litigation is necessary. Mark was quoted saying if a fiduciary is “confident in [its] process, it makes no sense not to overprovide info including those meeting minutes.” Check out the full article here.
Bailey Glasser tenaciously represents clients that include employees, former employees, retirees, and trust beneficiaries, as well as businesses and other professionals victimized by fraud, investment mismanagement, hidden and undisclosed fees, and illegal benefit cutbacks in a number of these settlements. We have a long history of representing clients harmed by hidden or excessive fees, or imprudent investments, in their 401(k) plans.
On November 18, 2021, Florida passed a new law during a special legislative session that bans private employers in the state from implementing mandatory vaccination policies for their workforce unless they provide opportunities for their employees to request exemptions to such policies for: (1) medical reasons (including pregnancy or anticipated pregnancy); (2) sincerely held religious beliefs; (3) COVID-19 “immunity”;(4) the employee’s agreement to submit to periodic testing; or (5) the employee’s agreement to comply with an employer-provided Personal Protective Equipment (“PPE”) requirement.
