A professor who helped write UC Berkeley's strict new AI policy says it's about preserving 'the value add of a lawyer'

The University of California, Berkeley Law School is implementing a stricter AI policy. Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images UC Berkeley Law School is implementing a stricter AI policy. The general policy is that students can no longer use AI for activities such as brainstorming. UC Berkeley Law School professor Chris Hoofnagle said it's about making sure students learn fundamental skills. UC Berkeley Law School's stricter AI policy forbids students from using it for things like brainstorming, but a professor who helped write the new rules says the school doesn't want to outright ban the tech. "Our policy is about developing students with the fundamental skills required for AI lawyering," UC Berkeley Law School professor Chris Hoofnagle told Business Insider. Hoofnagle said the school recognized that its 2023 AI use policy was "too liberal" in allowing students to use AI, especially given advancements in generative AI models since then. "It can, in effect, write a research paper soup to nuts," Hoofnagle said. "So, the increasing capability of LLMs required us to rethink students' reliance on them." UC Berkeley Law Professor Chris Hoofnagle helped develop the new policy. Courtesy of UC Berkeley Law UC Berkeley Law School's new policy , which will go into effect this summer, does not allow students to use AI for conceptualizing, outlining, drafting, revising, editing, translating, or for any purpose in an exam situation. The 2023 policy allowed for AI use for brainstorming, such as asking a chatbot to help come up with a paper topic, and conceptualization. Hoofnagle said the new policy was approved by a faculty vote, though instructors can deviate from it. He also said particular AI-focused courses will follow different standards. The goal, Hoofnagle said, is to ensure that first-year law students are learning the fundamentals of being a lawyer, including "how to read a case, analyze a case, and write about it cogently." "Of course, the question becomes, what is