As far as legal tech innovation goes, the past year was one for the record books.
When OpenAI released its chatbot ChatGPT on Nov. 30, 2022, legal technology, and even the legal industry as a whole, would never be the same—even if it didn’t realize it at the time. In the course of the next 12 months, generative AI would come to dominate conversations and product offerings.
ChatGPT itself would become a household name, for many a genericization applied to all generative AI, akin to Kleenex or Band-Aid. For legal, though, the importance of distinguishing between ChatGPT and generative AI soon became clear.
The first year of legal’s AI journey was not always smooth sailing, however. As with any major change, there was hype, there was fear, and there was more than a little trial and error. Hopefully we’ve come out on the other end wiser for the experience and ready to embrace generative AI in a thoughtful, meaningful way to improve the profession.
While the timeline below is by no means exhaustive (as generative AI developments seemed to flood in on a daily basis), this compilation highlights some key moments in what has been an unforgettable year.
