Chicago Law School bans laptops and phones for first-years to combat AI overreliance

Chicago Law bans phones and laptops from first-year classes to combat AI

July 9 (Reuters) - Incoming law students at the University of Chicago will be barred from using phones and laptops in required first-year courses in a bid to curb their AI usage under a new AI policy, opens new tab the school unveiled Thursday. The laptop and phone ban is part of a broader AI strategy the law school developed over the past year to ensure that "students actually learn to think critically, strategically, and independently without relying on AI," before teaching them to use those tools later on, according to the new policy. The AI policy appears to be among the most restrictive to be adopted by a U.S. law school. Chicago Law Dean Adam Chilton told Reuters he was unaware of any other school with a blanket first-year laptop and ⁠phone ban. The University of California, Berkeley School of Law in May debuted rules that drastically limit how students may use AI. Critics have said Berkeley's policy prohibits too many legitimate AI uses at a time when legal employers expect newly minted attorneys to know how to use the technology. Chilton said it was important to prepare students for situations in the classroom and in practice when they must answer legal questions on the spot without consulting AI. "AI is forcing us to ask ourselves, 'What are the essentially human skills that we should be training that AI can't replace?'" Chilton said in an interview. In Chicago's required first-year courses -- including constitutional law, torts, and property -- professors may appoint designated "scribes" who use electronic devices to take ⁠shared notes for the class under the new policy. All exams in those courses will be administered in class, without access to the internet, electronic files or apps. The school said it is piloting the new rules for the upcoming academic year. Chilton said he expects reaction from incoming students to be mixed, though he added that laptop bans previously imposed by individual Chicago professors have generally ⁠been well-received in the end by students who felt it improved their focus. AI will be incorporated into the required first-year legal research and writing course but will first focus on writing without AI before layering writing using AI on top, according to the new ⁠policy. Faculty will be able to experiment and develop their own AI policies for elective courses, though the phone and laptop ban and in-class testing will be the default. Chicago will still teach students AI -- it has added upper-level AI courses ⁠and started an AI lab where students learn to develop tools -- but it must ensure that instruction doesn't undermine foundational legal skills, Chilton said. Berkeley Law's AI crackdown highlights chatbot concerns AI training becomes mandatory at more US law schools AI startups court law students in fight for lawyer market Reporting by Karen Sloan; editing by Nate Raymond Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab * Suggested Topics: * Legal Industry Karen Sloan Thomson Reuters Karen Sloan reports on law firms, law schools, and the business of law. Reach her at [email protected]

UChicago Law bans laptops and phones for first-year students, mandates in-class exams starting this fall

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. What just happened? The University of Chicago Law School is tightening its rules on classroom technology in response to the way artificial intelligence is reshaping legal education. Starting this fall, first-year law students will be barred from using laptops, tablets, or phones in class under the new policy. The school is also strengthening its exam rules. All tests will be administered in person, with no access to the internet, electronic files, or apps. In addition, students will participate in oral discussions with professors about their research papers, a measure the school says is intended to verify students' understanding of and authorship of their work. In its announcement, the law school said the changes are a response to the way AI is disrupting higher education. "With AI disrupting higher education, our commitment to rigorous legal education must also mean being open to rapid adaptation," the school said. The policy reflects growing concern on campuses that easy access to generative AI can weaken key skills when students rely on it too heavily. The memo warns that using AI can "stunt intellectual growth," make students overly reliant on the technology, and prevent them from developing critical-thinking skills. At the same time, the school stressed that it is not banning AI. Instead, the goal is to clarify what constitutes productive use and what does not. "If you want to use AI as a study partner, if you want to use AI to ingest your notes from class and then create questions to quiz you on the material, that's great," said William Hubbard, a professor of law and economics and chair of the AI Committee. "That's not a shortcut. There are ways that using AI can strengthen the learning process and that's what we're trying to lean into." Clinical professor Mark Templeton, who also sits on the AI Committee, said the focus is on guiding students "toward using AI in ways that promote learning rather than inhibit it." While individual professors elsewhere have tried banning devices, Chicago's school-wide rules for first-year classes go further than typical classroom policies. The school said it made the decision after professors tested device bans and both students and faculty reported positive results. Law schools also face their own pressures. The legal profession has already seen multiple cases in which attorneys submitted filings containing AI-generated errors, including fabricated case law and incorrect citations. Judges have rebuked lawyers in several of those cases, underscoring the risks of using tools that can sound confident while being wrong. Other law schools are taking stricter positions. The University of California, Berkeley School of Law has banned students from using AI to "conceptualize, outline, draft, revise, and edit their work" for coursework and exams. Chicago's approach is different. Rather than trying to shut AI out, the school treats it as a technology that lawyers will inevitably have to work with. "It is simply unrealistic to think that students and lawyers will not use AI," the memo states. "But legal technology is changing rapidly, and there is no guarantee that the specific AI tools or techniques that are ascendant today will be useful when current students enter practice." By banning devices in class while allowing some AI use outside it, the law school is trying to keep the core work of learning separate from what the software can do for students. The goal is to ensure that students can do the work themselves first and only then use technology to support, rather than replace, those skills.

Law School Bans Laptops and Phones as AI Cheating Scandal Grows

Can't-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Classes are going to look a little different for the University of Chicago's first year law students. On Thursday, the law school said it was banning the use of phones, tablets, and even laptops in class for freshman-level courses, as it rejigs its curriculum to be more "AI-resilient" and encourage more deliberate use of the tech. An announcement from the school didn't explicitly mention AI cheating. But the changes come amid a backdrop of significant public concern over generative AI's impact on education, and plunging literacy and numeracy skills among students. "With AI disrupting higher education, our commitment to rigorous legal education also must mean openness to even rapid adaptation," the statement said. Device bans are not unusual in classrooms. Rarely, however, do they extend to laptops, and they're typically enforced at an instructor's discretion, rather than as a university-wide policy. The university claims the decision was made after both faculty and students reported positive effects after some professors experimented with device bans. It's just one of the few ways Chicago Law aims to tightly control how its students access AI tech. According to its new AI strategy statement, exams will be taken in-class without access to the internet and apps. Students will also have to take part in oral discussions with their professors about their research papers. It's far from a sweeping AI ban, however. The school still wants to prepare students for an AI-driven world, with the goal of steering them "toward using AI in ways that promote learning rather than inhibit it," clinical professor Mark Templeton, who serves on Chicago Law's AI Committee, said in a statement. University figures, in fact, go to great pains to make clear they're not shutting the door on AI completely. "If you want to use AI as a study partner, if you want to use AI to ingest your notes from class and then create questions to quiz you on the material, that's great," said William Hubbard, a professor of law and economics and chair of the AI Committee, in the statement. "That's not a shortcut. There are ways that using AI can strengthen the learning process and that's what we're trying to lean into." Major AI cheating scandals have already hit some of the country's top institutions. A professor at Brown University recently uncovered a massive AI cheating ring in what might be the largest scandal of its kind in Ivy League history, suspecting that over half his students cheated on an exam using a chatbot. Princeton University recently dropped its over century-old Honor Code tradition by forcing students to be supervised to take their exams, as suspicion of AI cheating rattled the schools. Chicago Law's AI crackdown could also be seen as a response to the poor example set by the professionals in the practice. Countless lawyers have been admonished by judges after submitting court filings riddled with clear AI hallucinations, from references to made-up case law to mis-attributed quotes. More on education: College Students Are Testing at the Level of 10-Year-Olds

University of Chicago Law School AI strategy bans phones, laptops in class for first year students

Sara Tenenbaum is the Senior Digital Producer for CBS News Chicago, overseeing editorial operations and social media, and covering breaking, local and community news. The University of Chicago Law School is banning first-year students from using phones and laptops in the classroom as part of a broader strategy to curb AI usage. In a long statement released Thursday, the law school wrote that they already see artificial intelligence impacting higher education and the legal profession. They said they spent the past year to reflect on how to adopt their curriculum and policies in response to AI, seeking input from their community, alumni, law firm leaders, business leaders, legal technology executives and law firm associates, as well as their faculty, staff and students. "The feedback we have received throughout this process has been consistent," they wrote. "We need to ensure that our students actually learn to think critically, strategically, and independently without relying on AI; but we also must face the reality that AI tools are already widely available to our students, and our graduates will be expected to be prepared to use them in legal practice." In response, the school said it's launching a three-prong strategy in which they will "develop AI-resilient pedagogy and assessment," elevate "'essential human' skills that distinguish excellent lawyers" and teach "responsible, effective, and ethical use of AI." As part of that strategy, first year law students will be prohibited from using electronic devices like laptops, tablets and phones in the classroom, university officials said. They said professors will be allowed to designate "classroom scribes" who can use electronic devices to take notes for the class, or authorize electronic device use in specific tech-reliant situations like interactive in-class polling. But overall electronic usage will be banned to "ensure students actually learn to think critically, strategically and independently without relying on AI." Other requirements will include legal research and writing classes that require students to write without using AI while using AI for research, revision and preparations for oral arguments, after which their writing and their use of AI will be reviewed. There will also be upper-level elective courses explicitly focusing on the use of AI and the creation of AI tools for legal work. "We recognize that no statement of an AI strategy or vision can be final," the school wrote. "Technology is changing too fast. Thus, all the changes we are currently making will be subject to review, reconsideration, and revision as we learn more and as both technology and the practice of law evolve."

University of Chicago Law School AI strategy bans 1st year students using phones, laptops in classroom

Sara Tenenbaum is the Senior Digital Producer for CBS News Chicago, overseeing editorial operations and social media, and covering breaking, local and community news. The University of Chicago Law School is banning first-year students from using phones and laptops in the classroom as part of a broader strategy to curb AI usage. In a long statement released Thursday, the law school wrote that they already see artificial intelligence impacting higher education and the legal profession. They said they spent the past year to reflect on how to adopt their curriculum and policies in response to AI, seeking input from their community, alumni, law firm leaders, business leaders, legal technology executives and law firm associates, as well as their faculty, staff and students. "The feedback we have received throughout this process has been consistent," they wrote. "We need to ensure that our students actually learn to think critically, strategically, and independently without relying on AI; but we also must face the reality that AI tools are already widely available to our students, and our graduates will be expected to be prepared to use them in legal practice." In response, the school said it's launching a three-prong strategy in which they will "develop AI-resilient pedagogy and assessment," elevate "'essential human' skills that distinguish excellent lawyers" and teach "responsible, effective, and ethical use of AI." As part of that strategy, first year law students will be prohibited from using electronic devices like laptops, tablets and phones in the classroom, university officials said. They said professors will be allowed to designate "classroom scribes" who can use electronic devices to take notes for the class, or authorize electronic device use in specific tech-reliant situations like interactive in-class polling. But overall electronic usage will be banned to "ensure students actually learn to think critically, strategically and independently without relying on AI." Other requirements will include legal research and writing classes that require students to write without using AI while using AI for research, revision and preparations for oral arguments, after which their writing and their use of AI will be reviewed. There will also be upper-level elective courses explicitly focusing on the use of AI and the creation of AI tools for legal work. "We recognize that no statement of an AI strategy or vision can be final," the school wrote. "Technology is changing too fast. Thus, all the changes we are currently making will be subject to review, reconsideration, and revision as we learn more and as both technology and the practice of law evolve."

These Law Schools Just Banned AI in the Classroom. Smart Employers Should Take Note

A few universities are cracking down not only on AI but on computers in general, and if you're looking to hire people who can think, you should throw your support toward these schools. And then, perhaps, other schools will follow suit. It's starting with the law schools, which makes sense, because if you want someone who can think through a problem, it's a lawyer. AI is never going to give you a unique legal strategy, as it will just pull in what others have done. Inside Higher Ed reports that law schools such as the University of California, Berkeley, which said students are prohibited from using AI in "conceptualizing, outlining, drafting, revising, translating, or editing any work submitted for credit," and the University of Chicago Law school which takes it a step further and said it "will ban laptops, tablets and phones in the classroom for first-year law students beginning this fall as part of its broader strategy of adapting legal education for the AI era." I'm 100 percent on board and wish schools would expand this to other areas.