Extract from Sam Bock’s article “Stemming the Data Tide: Generative AI and Customer Collaboration in RelativityOne”
No man is an island,” wrote a perilously ill John Donne in 1623. “Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”
Though he did study law, Donne almost certainly had more philosophical topics than document review in mind when he composed “Meditation XVII.” He wrote Devotions upon Emergent Occasions during a period of reflection fueled by relentless fevers and the thick fog of an English winter.
Still, the point remains as relevant to the legal industry as any other human community: none of us is meant to get through life, love, or labor in isolation.
Four hundred years past Donne and his meditations, we find ourselves at an inflection point in the history of human innovation. Shouted from every rooftop is the promise of artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, and its ability to relieve us of doldrum through its expansive computational power, unlocking our time and, thereby, new levels of our intellectual success.
But AI—even that well-spoken chatbot who tells you playful stories, remembers your favorite songs, and knows just what recipe to recommend for a busy weekday evening—has no soul.
