In the first known case of its kind, a British judge has confessed to a 'jolly good' use of Chatgpt when writing an appeals ruling.
Intellectual property law specialist, Lord Justice Birss, asked the artificial intelligence (AI) tool to provide a summary of an area of law and admits the response received from ChatGPT was acceptable.
At a recently Law Society event, he remarked that generative large language models had “real potential”, The Law Gazette reported.
“I think what is of most interest is that you can ask these large language models to summarise information. It is useful and it will be used and I can tell you, I have used it,” he said.
Who is Lord Justice Birss?
Lord Justice Colin Birss was admitted to the Bar in 1990 and worked in intellectual property law. From 2003 to 2008, he was the Standing Counsel for the Comptroller. In 2008, he got a degree in silk and was also named Vice Chair of the Copyright Tribunal. In 2010, he was put in charge of the Patents County Court, which is now called IPEC, as a Specialist Circuit Judge. In 2013, he was put in charge of the Chancery Division of the High Court. From 2017 to 2019, he was the Supervising Judge for the Business and Property Courts on the Midlands, Western, and Wales Circuits. In 2019, he became the Judge in Charge of the Patents Court.
He is an independent judge on the EPO Boards of Appeal Committee, serves on the Advisory Board of Judges for the WIPO Judicial Institute, is the General Editor of Terrell on the Law of Patents, and is a Council member of the UK Foundation for Science and Technology.
On January 25, 2021, he became a Lord Justice of Appeal, and on January 11, 2021, he became the Deputy Head of Civil Justice.
