Guidelines for lawyers using AI in works amid concerns over user info, search history being stored
Source: Straits Times
Article Date: 05 Mar 2025
Author: Samuel Devaraj
Minister of State for Law Murali Pillai said the ministry is focused on the impact of technology in the legal sector.
Legal professionals will soon be equipped with a set of guidelines to assist them in the use of generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) in their work.
Speaking at the debate on the Ministry of Law’s (MinLaw) budget on March 4, Minister of State for Law Murali Pillai said the ministry is focused on the impact of technology in the legal sector.
He said even as MinLaw encourages the use of gen AI, legal professionals should use such tools safely and responsibly.
He said the need for guard rails is clear, because gen AI may give inaccurate responses or hallucinate, adding that there are security and privacy concerns as well, with some models that may store user information and search history to train the model.
“This may then be reproduced for responses to other users,” Mr Murali said.
He added that there are ethical concerns, and with the rapid development of gen AI by different programmers, it is critical that such tools are developed within a framework guided by principles, ethics and rules.
Considering this context, he said MinLaw is working on guidelines to help legal professionals be smart buyers and users of gen AI tools.
Mr Murali said MinLaw has consulted stakeholders such as the Singapore Courts, the Law Society of Singapore and the Infocomm Media Development Authority, and will consult the industry in due course.
Also speaking in Parliament on March 4, Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong said the ministry will deploy legal technology (legaltech) consultants to interested law firms to diagnose their technology needs and recommend useful tools. This will be in the form of a pilot initiative in the second half of 2025.
MinLaw had received feedback from law firms that they required support to improve their tech processes while juggling existing priorities.
Said Mr Tong: “We all know what AI and gen AI, like ChatGPT, can do. Similarly, in the legal sector, AI can potentially perform tasks at the level of junior legal associates, but at a fraction of the time and cost.”
He highlighted a 2024 Thomson Reuters report which estimated that AI can save professionals up to 12 hours per week by 2029.
He added: “Instead of seeing this as a threat, let’s also look at this as an opportunity for lawyers to go up the value chain, to focus on higher value tasks, looking at front-facing work, client-facing work.”
Mr Tong said that, globally, law firms in other jurisdictions like the United States and United Kingdom are embracing and harnessing legaltech in support of their work. To compete with them, Singapore lawyers must also keep an open mindset and embrace legaltech.
Mr Tong noted that in 2022, the Legal Technology Platform – a matter management and collaboration tool – was launched and made available to law firms that desired a ready product. Gen AI was added in 2024 as a feature.
MinLaw made legaltech accessible to Singapore law practices by providing subsidies to defray the cost, he added.
Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.
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