Articles Posted in Science and Technology

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SciTech Magazine is published by the Science and Technology Section of the  American Bar Association.

INTRODUCTION:

The Winter 2026 issue of The SciTech Lawyer, published by the American Bar Association’s Science & Technology Law Section, arrives at a pivotal moment in the legal profession’s evolving relationship with artificial intelligence. Centered on the theme of responsible AI use, this issue explores how rapidly advancing technologies are reshaping legal practice while raising urgent ethical, regulatory, and professional responsibility concerns.

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In recent years, advances in neuroscience have sparked interest in whether brain stimulation technologies might contribute to crime prevention. Techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) have been studied for their effects on impulse control, aggression, and moral decision-making traits often associated with criminal behavior. While this research is scientifically intriguing, its relevance to criminal justice policy remains limited and contested.

The Neuroscience Rationale

Much of the interest in brain stimulation stems from findings linking antisocial or impulsive behavior to dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain responsible for executive control, emotional regulation, and judgment. Laboratory studies suggest that stimulating this area can temporarily enhance self control or reduce aggressive responses in controlled settings. These findings have led some commentators to speculate whether neurological interventions could someday complement traditional crime-prevention strategies.

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Introduction.

This posting draws on guidance and analysis from AALL, IFLA, ACRL, the ABA, Thomson Reuters, LexisNexis, NIST, Stanford HAI, and the World Economic Forum, among others. Artificial intelligence is no longer a speculative “future issue” for law and justice information professionals. By 2026, AI will be embedded, sometimes invisibly, into many legal research platforms, court systems, compliance workflows, and knowledge-management environments. The central question is no longer whether AI will affect our work, but how it reshapes professional responsibility, judgment, and value.

From Research Assistance to Research Accountability

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INTRODUCTION:

The legal tech landscape is accelerating, with major announcements spanning AI, blockchain, and automation. Highlights include the American Arbitration Association’s partnership with Integra Ledger on blockchain document authentication, Thomson Reuters expanding CoCounsel and Westlaw Deep Research into law schools, law firms, law libraries and new product launches from Exterro, Quo, Tonkean, and UnitedLex. Together, these updates signal how quickly legal practice, education, and dispute resolution are being reshaped by technology.

FROM CO COUNSEL TO BLOCKCHAIN…

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Introduction

Stanford Law School has recently announced the launch of the Legal Innovation through Frontier Technology Lab (Liftlab),led by Stanford CodeX research fellow Megan Ma, who will serve as liftlab’s executive director, alongside professor of law Julian Nyarko. Liftlab ia a bold new initiative designed to explore how artificial intelligence and other frontier technologies can reshape the practice of law. Unlike earlier waves of legal technology that focused mainly on cost savings and efficiency, Liftlab has a broader ambition: to make legal services not just faster or cheaper, but better, more equitable, and more accessible.

This mission has implications well beyond law firms and classrooms. Law libraries: whether academic, government, court, firm-based, or public stand to benefit greatly from Liftlab’s research, tools, and experiments. By acting as trusted intermediaries between new technologies and legal practitioners, libraries could become vital testing grounds and educational partners in this era of transformation.

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Inspired by Axios’s “Behind the Curtain: A White-Collar Bloodbath” (May 28, 2025)

Dario Amodei, cofounder and CEO of Anthropic, is issuing an urgent warning: advanced artificial intelligence may soon pose a serious threat to millions of white-collar jobs. While today’s AI systems, like Anthropic’s own Claude and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, are currently seen as productivity boosters, Amodei cautions that this could quickly change as models become dramatically more powerful.

In internal presentations recently shared with government officials, Amodei projected that future AI models, potentially arriving in the early 2030s, could be capable of performing 80 to 90% of tasks typically handled by college educated professionals. These include jobs in legal research, finance, marketing, and customer service. For example, AI tools are already being deployed to automate paralegal tasks and financial analysis; and some early adopter companies are replacing portions of their human customer support teams with large language model (LLM) chatbots.

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Since writing and publishing my 1982 article, An Examination of the Dynamics of Change in Information Technology as Viewed From Libraries and Information Centers, 75 Law Library J. 198 (1982). I have learned a great deal—so much, in fact, that a completely new article is necessary. What I have come to understand more deeply is the universality of change—how it shapes everything within us and around us. This realization has transformed my perspective, and I believe it is important to share these new insights. I hope you find this fresh perspective both valuable and thought-provoking, and that it inspires you to share it with others.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    David Badertscher

INTRODUCTION

Change is the driving force behind everything—from the expansion of the universe to the evolution of life and the rise and fall of civilizations. It fuels both entropy, which pushes systems toward disorder, and evolution, which shapes complexity and adaptation. But is change simply a consequence of these forces, or is it the deeper, underlying principle guiding all transformation?

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed numerous industries, and legal research is no exception. Emerging AI-powered tools have introduced new efficiencies in case law analysis, contract review, compliance monitoring, and legal document automation. Among these innovations, DeepSeek, an open-source large language model (LLM), has garnered attention for its potential to revolutionize legal research support systems.

DeepSeek offers advanced reasoning capabilities, text summarization, and document analysis functions that could significantly enhance legal workflows. Its open-source nature and adaptability set it apart from proprietary legal research platforms such as Westlaw Edge, LexisNexis, and Casetext’s CoCounsel. However, its viability as a legal research tool must be assessed not only in terms of its technological capabilities but also through the lens of accuracy, security, regulatory compliance, and ethical considerations.

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Introduction

Materials consulted in preparing this posting were curated from various sources including the recently introduced Deep Research by OpenAI.

With Elon Musk at the helm of the Department of Government Efficiency,   various agencies within the U.S. government may experience restructuring aimed at streamlining operations, reducing costs, and integrating advanced technologies. One area likely to be affected is government agency libraries—institutions that provide critical research, archival, and information services to federal employees, policymakers, and researchers. These libraries, usually housed within agencies such as the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and the Department of Defense (DoD), play an essential role in supporting government functions. This essay explores how Musk’s efficiency-driven policies might reshape these libraries, with potential consequences for automation, digitization, data management, funding, privacy and information security. Although the focus of this posting is U.S. government libraries, its implications are far reaching.

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From a Legaltech News posting by Benjamin Joyner , January 27, 2025.

“LexisNexis {has] announced the general availability of Protégé, a personalized artificial intelligence assistant for legal work. The release follows last August’s announcement of Protégé’s commercial preview, which allowed several dozen customers to beta test the product.”

“The new tool is now integrated into Lexis’ larger generative AI platform, Lexis+ AI, which includes a variety of other features such as a citation tool, and is expected to be rolled out across other Lexis products shortly. The initial launch of Protégé came shortly after Lexis’ purchase of Belgian contract drafting startup Henchman, which was announced last June and finalized the following month. The use of the startup’s document management system integrations enabled enhanced personalization by grounding output in the previous work product of the individual user and the firm.”

 

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