Professor Jungpil Hahn, Director of the NUS FinTech Lab, shared his perspectives at the Council of Judges of the Supreme Court of Singapore on “The Legal Profession and the Ethics of Generative AI”. Generative AI isn’t just changing how we work; it’s changing how we learn, reason, and grow as professionals.
He discussed how:
- AI is compressing judgment; shifting lawyers from producing to validating reasoning.
- The legal profession, built on language and precedent, is ground zero for this cognitive transformation.
- The hidden cost of efficiency may be the erosion of apprenticeship; when junior lawyers no longer “learn by drafting”, the entire pipeline of expertise is at risk.
- Ethics in the age of AI is less about compliance, and more about stewardship; how to preserve human judgment amid automation.
It is worth thinking about how people can balance innovation with integrity, and ensure that AI augments, not erodes, the human foundations of justice.