A year after the emergence of a new breed of generative artificial intelligence tools were thrust into public consciousness, with the program ChatGPT leading the charge, French-language law faculties in Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick are still grappling over its far-reaching potential impacts on teaching and learning in higher education.
The widespread availability of free and low-cost AI chatbots capable of generating sophisticated, human-like responses culled from heaps of data from open-web content has stirred debate and prompted deliberation within French-language law faculties over a host of issues, ranging from academic integrity or cheating, cognitive bias, privacy and security concerns, intellectual property rights, and the benefits and risks of implementing AI tools in teaching and learning.
Some law faculties, while they have not closed the door on implementing their own internal policies, have however opted to wait for their institution to forge an establishment-wide AI policy. Others such as the Université du Québec à Montréal see no need for a university-wide policy or formal departmental guidelines governing the use of AI, other than the stipulation that students respect academic integrity regulations.
“It’s clear that things are changing fast, which is why we need to work well,” said David Robitaille, vice-dean of studies at the Faculty of Law – Civil Law at the University of Ottawa. “It’s certainly a priority issue for faculties, at least for ours. But we shouldn’t rush into solutions too quickly.”
