Futurelawyer

Microsoft CoPilot Gets Intelligent Agents.

Microsoft Launches New CoPilot Features. Microsoft CoPilot is being integrated into all of Microsoft's software, making it easy for Office 365 and Team users to use the Chat GPT 4o while using Microsoft products in their daily tasks. The integration is expanding into intelligent agents that not only automate tasks; but now can create systems that operate autonomously without human intervention. I am more of a prompt and answer user of generative AI, and still don't trust AI with automating legal tasks, since errors can be more serious; but for day to day use, it seems inevitable that AI will become commonplace in many environments. It is now officially impossible to keep up with all the ways in which AI is being introduced into computing, so Buyer beware. Be careful out there.

Advanced AI Will Make Some Jobs Obsolete...Want To Write Computer Code?

Open AI's Strawberry Might Be The Nail In The Coffin For Computer Coders. If you are looking for a growth industry, computer coding is probably not a good choice. Computer code, like computers, is strictly a computer problem. The newest iteration of Open AI's offering, code named Strawberry, promises to code as well or better than humans, and much faster. Humans will still be needed to "design" software; but, that is a matter of language and art. Strict coding is tailor made for AI computers. At least, the nuances of language are, at present, beyond even AI. Thanks to people and the Lord for making work for lawyers. 

Signal - It Is The Surveillance State's Worst Nightmare.

Signal. Every time I read, in the news, about another famous person, or political party, or other prominent entity, whose private inter company or personal messages are hacked, and made public, I think about Signal. This non-profit, encrypted message application is used my millions of people to keep confidential communications private. It doesn't surveil you, no one else can see your data, and it is free, since the entity is non profit. While such an application can certainly be used for evil purposes, in a free society, it is an essential tool for groups who have a legal interest in privacy. It is ideal for lawyers who much keep their clients' communications secure and private. The recent arrest of Telegram's CEO in France has highlighted the battle between governments who want to know everything, and those who don't want government intrusion into their privacy. As Generative AI becomes more entwined in the system, this battle will become more important. While we don't want governments to control our every action, it will be much tougher to fight against AI computers that can anticipate and block our every move. It is thus important to elect governments who are required, by law, to preserve our freedom of speech. Do you know what your candidate feels about this issue? Does the political party your support really believe in freedom of speech? Without freedom of speech, there is no real freedom. If the State can control speech, it can control everything.

 

Chat GPT Gets Advanced Voice Mode. Robot Personal Assistants Aren't Science Fiction Anymore.

Open AI Chat GPT Advanced Voice Rollout. The first, and still my favorite, generative AI bot, Chat GPT, is going to become a natural voice speaking personal assistant with the advanced voice rollout. I have played with the first version of it on my phones, and it is amazing. From the beginning, I have lusted after a bot similar to the sci fi librarian in the movie adaptation of the Time Machine. What if you could have the smartest computer in the world talking to you in your ear? This has been the fictional dream in many sci fi movies, and has fascinated me since I was a kid. You have to be a paid user (I pay $20 a month), and it began rolling out yesterday. I will keep you updated as I test it. I will be thinking of Scotty trying to talk to an Eighties computer in the Star Trek movie when I say: "Computer"...

WordPerfect, Kofax Power PDF , Kindle Scribe, And Android - Power Foursome.

WordPerfect. I am a member of a minority, a WordPerfect user, and I am proud to say it is still the best and most functional, and easiest to use, of the wordprocessors. Yes, Microsoft has made Word a staple of modern computing; but Word files can be read and used by Wordperfect, and can be sent as Word files back. However, as an Android user, there hasn't been a way to read and deal with WordPerfect files on phones and tablets. There was a reader app long ago, but it needed to be sideloaded as an APK file, and wasn't very functional. Enter my favorite PDF software, Kofax PDF.  I use it every day to create, send, collaborate, efile, and otherwise deal with PDF files. So, my workaround, while a little cumbersome, works great. I merely take my WordPerfect files or pleadings, and publish them to PDF, just as I always do in order to Efile them with the Court system, or send them to clients and others. However, I can transfer them to my Kindle Scribe as PDFs and read them on the Scribe. From the Scribe I can email them to myself, using the Send to Kindle app, and open them on the phone with the Android version of Kofax Power PDF. PDFs sent to the Scribe using Send to Kindle app can be highlighted, edited, and otherwise written on as well. WordPerfect now. WordPerfect forever.

Phone By Google Now Has Reverse Phone Search.

Google Phone New Lookup Tool. The new beta of the Phone for Google app has a new lookup feature. I am always checking suspicious missed calls in my Search software, which has a reverse phone search option. However, it is a pain to load the software, and input the suspicious number. It is useful to determine which calls deserve to be returned; although, anyone who doesn't leave a message is suspect. Google, whatever you think of the Googleverse, is always improving their products, and adding a reverse phone search to Google phone is a welcome addition to the arsenal. Thanks, Google. 

AI Memory - Kevin O'Keefe Gets It.

the-impact-of-memory-in-openais-chatgpt-elevating-your-conversations-with-ai/ Back in 2005, when Kevin O'Keefe introduced me to blogging, he knew intuitively that it would be huge for lawyers. In fact, it is now the biggest compendium of legal knowledge in the world, and he is the world's biggest aggregator of legal blogs. Then, when I was pooh-poohing Twitter as a method of lawyers reaching clients and the public, he was opining that it would be as big as legal blogging. He was right. I was wrong. Finally, however, we have jumped on the same tech train, and we both see generative AI as the biggest thing to hit human knowledge and lawyer productivity ever. He uses AI the same way that I do, and we both are using Chat GPT to pare initial research and writing tasks from hours to minutes. As for those who say lawyers can get into trouble using it, we say that AI product is just a starting point, and that editing and rewriting its content in the lawyer's voice, and checking the accuracy of its fact statements, are just as essential to its use. So, learn how to use Chat GPT, grasshopper, or be left in the dust. In this post, Kevin show how the newest AI feature, memory and style, can make AI work product even more specific to the lawyer using it. If Chat GPT makes a mistake, just let it know, and it will remember. It can also learn to mimic your legal style, and, over time, will become indistinguishable from the real thing.

 

Have A Samsung Phone? Circle Search Is Your Best Friend.

Android Circle To Search. Just when you were getting used to Google Lens, which allows deep dive searching by taking a picture on your Android phone, Google has added the ability to draw a circle around anything in a photo, and automatically do a search of the person, item, or view. Just tap and hold the home button, and draw a circle on the screen around what you are curious about. Amazing tech that further brings the world to our fingertips.

Android 15 Beta 2 - Some Real Changes Going On Here.

Android 15 Beta 2 Hands On. I long ago lost count of new iterations of Android. I have been using the Android OS system since the beginning; and, after so many years, the Android universe seemed so mature that changes became almost invisible. Sure, each new version had some differences; but it only took a minute to get used to them, and to find what I needed to get things done. And, since Android can be tweaked to be comfortable for each user, it was a no brainer to stay with the ecosystem, and avoid the Apple universe. This time, however, the changes will be noticeable and plentiful. Pair this with Google's new emphasis on AI, and you will be holding magic in your hand. If you want to see what you will be holding in your hand in the near future, watch this video, and read this article. This is not your father's Android.

Sunday Is Mother's Day. Are You Ready?

The ad says, and I quote, "Watch her face light up with delight". It is an ad for Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking from a few years ago. I kid you not. So, this Sunday, get your wife or mom the gift that Nuance says will light up her life. A subscription to online dictation software. What more could a woman want? This is an old ad, since Nuance is now called Kofax. But, the point is that every Tom, Dick and Harry vendor is going to act like their product is an ideal Mother's Day gift. Hint. They aren't.