Author: Alex Heshmaty
Alex Heshmaty is technology editor for the Newsletter. He runs Legal Words, a legal copywriting agency based in the Silicon Gorge. Email alex@legalwords.co.uk.
What’s New? September 2025
AI hallucinated case law In the recent case of Ayinde v Haringey [2025] EWHC 1383 (Admin), Dame Victoria Sharp, President of the King’s Bench Division of the High Court, issued a stark warning to lawyers that they have a “professional duty” to ensure that fictitious case citations “hallucinated” by generative AI (GenAI) tools do not […]
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The risks of using GenAI for legal research
As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) software is increasingly foisted upon both private and public sector workforces, with the now familiar mantra of “boosting productivity”, many lawyers have attempted to harness some of the tools for legal research. In this article we consider the scale of the uptake and identify some of the risks, alongside expert […]
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The state of copyright and AI in 2025
It’s coming up to three years since ChatGPT was released to the public in November 2022. In April 2024, we considered the impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) on professional writers; the “double whammy” of having their copyright material used for training LLMs (without receiving payment) whilst being made redundant as a result of these models becoming […]
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What’s New? June 2025
First SRA regulated AI law firm At the beginning of May, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) made the following announcement in a press release: “We have authorised the first law firm providing legal services through artificial intelligence (AI). While many firms are already using AI to support and deliver a range of back-office and public-facing services, […]
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What’s New? March 2025
AI action plan In January the government published the independently written AI Opportunities Action Plan and pledged to take forward all 50 of its recommendations. Key points include the following sections: 1.2 Unlocking data assets in the public and private sector Arguably building on the UK Data (Use and Access) Bill covered in December 2024’s […]
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What’s New? December 2024
Autumn Budget infotech initiatives As part of its first Budget, the government announced £20.4 billion of investment for research and development projects in the UK, in an effort to drive economic growth. A portion of this will undoubtedly fund artificial intelligence (AI) projects, and to help lay the framework for AI development the government: “will […]
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What’s New? September 2024
The King’s Speech The newly elected Labour government has had its hands full both on the domestic and international front since Sir Keir Starmer KC took office, but the King’s Speech gave some hints as to the direction of travel regarding technology regulation. Although the widely anticipated UK AI Bill has been kicked into the long grass, […]
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What’s New? June 2024
First international treaty on AI The Council of Europe recently adopted a framework convention which aims to ensure the respect of human rights, the rule of law, and democratic legal standards, in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. The treaty is the outcome of two years’ work by an intergovernmental body, the Committee on […]
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What’s New? April 2024
EU AI Act passed The European Parliament approved the Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act) on 13 March 2024. It has been hailed as the world’s first comprehensive and binding piece of legislation on AI, although many of its provisions won’t be enforced for at least a year or two. Rather than attempting to regulate specific technologies, […]
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Copyright and copywriting: AI challenges
Since ChatGPT was released to the public in November 2022, countless articles have been written about how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) will improve the efficiency of white collar workers, including legal professionals, and perhaps eventually lead to job losses. Ironically, it’s the very people writing about the revolutionary potential of this technology who have been […]
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The Online Safety Act 2023: a primer
After a long time in the making, the Online Safety Act finally received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. According to the accompanying Government press release, the Act “places legal responsibility on tech companies to prevent and rapidly remove illegal content” and aims “to stop children seeing material that is harmful to them”. So what […]
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Generative AI and access to justice
It’s been almost a year since ChatGPT was released to the public back in November 2022. Although much has been written about the impact of generative AI on the legal sector as a whole, there has been less focus on its potential to improve access to justice for the ordinary citizen who cannot afford a […]
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