changing business models

Can you make AI fairer than a judge? Play our courtroom algorithm game — from technologyreview.com by Karen Hao and Jonathan Stray
Play our courtroom algorithm game The US criminal legal system uses predictive algorithms to try to make the judicial process less biased. But there’s a deeper problem.

Excerpt:

As a child, you develop a sense of what “fairness” means. It’s a concept that you learn early on as you come to terms with the world around you. Something either feels fair or it doesn’t.

But increasingly, algorithms have begun to arbitrate fairness for us. They decide who sees housing ads, who gets hired or fired, and even who gets sent to jail. Consequently, the people who create them—software engineers—are being asked to articulate what it means to be fair in their code. This is why regulators around the world are now grappling with a question: How can you mathematically quantify fairness?

This story attempts to offer an answer. And to do so, we need your help. We’re going to walk through a real algorithm, one used to decide who gets sent to jail, and ask you to tweak its various parameters to make its outcomes more fair. (Don’t worry—this won’t involve looking at code!)

The algorithm we’re examining is known as COMPAS, and it’s one of several different “risk assessment” tools used in the US criminal legal system.

But whether algorithms should be used to arbitrate fairness in the first place is a complicated question. Machine-learning algorithms are trained on “data produced through histories of exclusion and discrimination,” writes Ruha Benjamin, an associate professor at Princeton University, in her book Race After Technology. Risk assessment tools are no different. The greater question about using them—or any algorithms used to rank people—is whether they reduce existing inequities or make them worse.

You can also see change in these articles as well:

Legal Innovation – It’s Not Just For Big Law — from artificiallawyer.com
Say the words ‘legal innovation’ and Big Law firms often come to mind. But, the reality is that the firms genuinely focused on innovation and leveraging legal tech to improve how they deliver legal services is a rapidly widening group, and far beyond just the massive global firms.
PwC Legal Arm Partners With Contract Startup ThoughtRiver — from by Simon Lock
The agreement will see PwC launch pre-screening products for clients in collaboration with ThoughtRiver by the first quarter of 2020.
Artificial Intelligence Is on the Case in the Legal Profession — from observer.com by Harmon Leon
Artificial intelligence (AI) is, in fact, becoming a mainstay component of the legal profession. In some circumstances, this analytics-crunching technology is using algorithms and machine learning to do work that was previously done by entry-level lawyers.
KPMG Legal Expands in Eastern Europe by Absorbing Tech-Centric Law Firm — from by Varsha Patel
KPMG absorbed Fernbach & Partners in a move to create “the leading technology, IP and privacy practice in Romania”.

DC: In the future…will there be a “JustWatch” or a “Suppose” for learning-related content?

On 10/17/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, algorithms, Amazon, Apple, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, attention, blended learning, business side of he, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, Content aggregration, content development, content repositories, convergence, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, distance education, e-books, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, flipping -- inverted learning, future of higher education, game-changing environment, Google, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, K-12 related, Law Schools, learning, Learning Agents, learning ecosystem, learning from the living [class] room, learning hubs, learning preferences, learning spaces, Lifelong learning, love of learning, Media/film, Microlearning, Mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more choice more control, multimedia, new business models, online learning, online media, open courseware and systems, personalized/customized learning, platforms, play, podcasting, pooling resources, professional development, second screen apps, simulations, smart classrooms, Smart/Connected TV, social learning / networks, society, storytelling, streams of content, student-related, surviving, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, Technologies for your home, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, universities, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, virtual reality / worlds / learning, vision, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, Walmart of Education --> New Amazon.com of Higher Education, web-based collaboration, webinars, by Daniel Christian

In case you missed it, WMU-Cooley’s President and Board of Directors took a look at our tuition rates and made the decision to reduce them by 21 percent starting Fall 2020! https://t.co/FjC6hk4vnE pic.twitter.com/NkCMAzoomE

— WMU-Cooley Law School (@WMUcooleylaw) October 16, 2019

From DSC:
Regular readers of this blog will know that for years, I’ve made it one of my goals to try and raise awareness of the need for institutions of higher education to lower their tuitions! For example, Yohan Na and I designed the graphic below way back in 2009.

Daniel S. Christian: My concerns with just maintaining the status quo

Through those years, I cringed when I kept hearing various Boards say, “We only increased our tuition by ___ % — the lowest percentage increase in our state.” The direction was completely wrong! It needed to go down, not up. If you work in higher ed, I encourage you to find a way for that to happen at your own institution.

So I’m very pleased to report that the WMU-Thomas M. Cooley Law School — where I work — was able to reduce tuition by 21%!!!

Don’t get me wrong, some tough decisions were made to pave the way for that to occur. But this will be the case no matter which institution of higher education that you look at. An institution will have to make some tough choices to reduce their tuition. But it HAS to occur. We can’t keep this upward trajectory going.

If we don’t change this trajectory, we will continue to put enormous gorillas (of debt) on our graduates’ backs! Such debt will take our graduates decades to pay off.

We need to be aware of these invisible gorillas of debt. That is, our students move on…and we don’t see them. But their gorillas remain.

Addendum on 10/18/19:

The 2019 Law School Experience — from info.cooley.edu

Victoria Vuletich, the assistant dean at the Grand Rapids, Michigan campus of Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, was interviewed by the State Bar of Michigan’s Legal Talk Network to discuss what the law school experience is like for the current generation of students.

Priorities for new lawyers are changing. Can the legal industry keep up? — — from law.com by Annie Datesh, Natasha Allen, and Nicole Hatcher, Atrium
As the legal field continues to move forward, it is well-primed to place greater value on technological advancements, diverse leadership, and healthy work cultures over settling for the status quo.

Excerpts:

Yet the legal industry these lawyers are joining is evolving, and now increasingly hosts a new cohort of professionals—those shaped by technology and innovation, and who value diversity, mentorship, and efficiency over homogeneous workplaces with minimal coaching and exhausted capacities.
…
Amid a strengthening job market, why are jobs in a generally well-respected industry being looked over in favor of other industries? One reason could be the legal industry’s notorious lack of progressiveness. The industry’s technology landscape is one such area of slow growth; its lack of diversity is another.

The legal industry’s long-standing dismissal of technology, while slowly changing, is fairly well known. While legal technology holds enormous potential for law firms, the industry as a whole has been famously slow to adopt modern technologies or meaningfully innovate on the traditional law firm business model. Why? For smaller firms, money can be tight, and solutions can be expensive.

The good news is that the legal industry is slowly but surely becoming more receptive to the benefits of evolving its traditional approach to the business and practice of law. Legal technologies continue to offer increased efficiencies to law firms, should they elect to adopt them, and the call for diversity and other cultural improvements within firms and the legal industry more broadly is on the rise.
…
Those players in the legal industry who are able to recognize prevailing industry trends now will be in the best position to act on them.

An inserted graphic from DSC:

The Future Ready Lawyer — from Wolters Kluwer

Excerpts:

Leveraging technology as a strategic advantage is characteristics of high-performing businesses and professionals around the world. The same is true for the legal sector. Technology is a differentiator, and will become even more important as legal professionals recognize and leverage the unprecedented insights, capabilities and efficiencies that technology delivers. In addition, the emerging legal ecosystems will demand it, as tech-empowered players outside of the traditional legal profession continue to enter and disrupt the market.

From DSC:
It’s interesting to note how many times the words “technology” (205 times) and/or the word “technologies” (77 times) appear in that report.

Big money is betting on legal industry transformation [Cohen]

On 10/07/2019, in Amazon, business, career development, change, changing business models, corporate / business world, Cost of legal services - including access, emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, Google, Law Schools, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, new business models, platforms, technology (general), tools, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Big money is betting on legal industry transformation — from forbes.com by Mark Cohen

Excerpts:

Law has been big business for decades, but only recently has significant venture capital, private equity, and entrepreneur money been pumped into the legal sector. Last year saw an eye-popping 718% increase in legal industry investment, and this year’s capital infusion through the third-quarter has already surpassed last year’s $1 billion total and could well double it. Capital is turbocharging customer-centric providers that are leveraging technology, process, new skillsets, and data to transform the legal function and the delivery of legal services.

…
Teaser alert: what’s to prevent Amazon, Google, or some other tech giant from entering the legal space, creating a global platform, injecting billions into infrastructure and talent, creating a global legal services hub that connects consumers with global legal delivery sources as never before imagined? Short answer: the inclination to do so.

Legal delivery has morphed into a three-legged stool supported by legal, technological, and business expertise.

The rise of the lawyer [Furlong]

On 10/01/2019, in 21st century, algorithms, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, Blockchain, Canada, change, changing business models, emerging technologies, Law Schools, legislatures / government / legal, new business models, society, by Daniel Christian

The rise of the lawyer — from law21.ca by Jordan Furlong

Per Jordan:

Earlier this year, I received an invitation to write the epilogue for a book called New Suits: Appetite for Disruption in the Legal World, by Michele DeStefano (founder of the groundbreaking Law Without Walls program based at the University of Miami Law School) and Guenther Dobrauz-Saldapenna (partner and leader of PwC Legal Switzerland and leader of PwC’s global legal tech efforts). New Suits is an enormously ambitious and illuminating exploration of the frontiers of technology-powered legal practice, especially for large enterprise clients and their outside counsel, and I highly recommend that you read it.

Of course, I’m no technology expert, and I felt supremely unqualified to say anything useful about the impact of blockchain, AI, RegTech, and so on. But I thought that lawyers who read New Suits, especially newly called lawyers or law students, might reach the end of the book feeling a little overwhelmed by the scale of change facing them, and wondering whether the legal world of the future would in any way resemble the one they had already entered — and if that world would need, want, or even welcome lawyers.

So I wrote what was essentially a message to those lawyers, to explain what all the forthcoming changes would mean for them, what the new legal world was going to demand of them, and what they should feel both empowered and required to demand in return. With the kind permission of the authors, and with a few small edits, here is that lengthy but heartfelt message.

So here’s what I’d very much like you to remember: What you do matters. Who you are matters. When you speak out, it has an impact. When you fall silent, that has an impact too. Do not let yourself get lost in the noise and complexity of the machine; do not lose sight of the primacy and power of true service; do not lose who you are, and who you could be, amid the upheaval and disruption to come. Out of this chaos, you can forge new meaning and greater purpose. Out of the end of one era in the legal profession’s history, you can launch the start of another.

Also see:

A momentous change in the legal industry garnering little attention — from forbes.com by Hendrik Pretorius

Excerpt:

The needed evolution in legal service delivery may receive a big push in the near future. Surprisingly, this issue seems to be flying under the radar for many in the legal industry.

The California Bar, through its Task Force on Access Through Innovation of Legal Services, created in 2018, seeks to “identify possible regulatory changes to enhance the delivery of, and access to, legal services through the use of technology, including artificial intelligence and online legal service delivery models.”

A report commissioned by this task force stated that “[m]odifying the ethics rules to facilitate greater collaboration across law and other disciplines will (1) drive down costs; (2) improve access; (3) increase predictability and transparency of legal services; (4) aid the growth of new businesses; and (5) elevate the reputation of the legal profession.”

Herein lies one of the fundamental challenges within the legal industry: viewing the law as the delivery of a legal product, and understanding that this delivery needs to revolve around the user, not the lawyer. There is a real and growing divide between the current model of legal service delivery put forth by a traditional law firm model and what the public wants. Consumers have raised the bar based on what they are experiencing in interacting with other businesses in other industries.
…
I love what many of these legal tech companies are doing: They are applying standards from outside the entrenched legal industry and changing entire delivery models. This should be a real wake-up call. But how can law firms truly compete and play a role?

Reflections on “DIY Mindset Reshaping Education” [Schaffhauser]

On 09/17/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, algorithms, analytics, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, consortiums, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Cost of legal services - including access, credentialing, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, Law Schools, leadership, learning, Learning Agents, learning ecosystem, learning from the living [class] room, learning hubs, learning preferences, learning spaces, learning theories, Lifelong learning, marketplaces, Microlearning, Mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more choice more control, Natural Language Processing (NLP), new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, organizational change, pace of change, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, society, staying relevant, streams of content, student-related, surviving, by Daniel Christian

DIY Mindset Reshaping Education — from campustechnology.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

A do-it-yourself mindset is changing the face of education worldwide, according to new survey results. Learners are “patching together” their education from a “menu of options,” including self-teaching, short courses and bootcamps, and they believe that self-service instruction will become even more prevalent for lifelong learning. In the United Sates specifically, 84 percent of people said learning would become even more self-service the older they get.

Among those who have needed to reskill in the last two years to continue doing their jobs, 42 percent found information online and taught themselves and 41 percent took a course or training offered by their employers, a professional association or bootcamp, compared to just 28 percent who pursued a professional certification program, 25 percent who enrolled in a university-level degree program or 12 percent who did nothing.

If people had to learn something new for their career quickly, they said they would be more likely turn to a short training program (47 percent), followed by access to a free resource such as YouTube, Lynda.com or Khan Academy (33 percent). A smaller share (20 percent) would head to an accredited university or college.

From DSC:
This is why the prediction from Thomas Frey carries weight and why I’ve been tracking a new learning platform for the 21st century. Given:

The exponential pace of technological change occurring in many societies throughout the globe

That emerging technologies are game-changers in many industries
That people will need to learn about those emerging technologies and how to leverage/use them <– if they want to remain marketable/employed
That people need to reinvent themselves quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively
That many people can’t afford the time nor the funding necessary these days to acquire a four-year higher ed degree
That running new courses, programs, etc. through committees, faculty senates, etc. takes a great deal of time…and time is something we no longer have (given this new pace of change)

…there needs to be a new, up-to-date, highly responsive, inexpensive learning-related platform for the 21st century. I call this learning platform of the future, “Learning from the Living [Class] Room.” And while it requires subject matter experts / humans in significant ways, AI and other technologies will be embedded throughout such a platform.

“I’ve been predicting that by 2030 the largest company on the internet is going to be an education-based company that we haven’t heard of yet,” Frey, the senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute think tank, tells Business Insider.

— source

Addendum on 9/18/19:

Education Startup Launches Online Courses for College Credit — from campustechnology.com by Sara Friedman

For $400 per course, students will be able to gain access to course videos that are cinematically filmed and taught by “some of the brightest minds in academia.” Outlier.org students will also have access to problem sets, one-on-one tutoring and assessments proctored through artificial intelligence.

Digital workplaces are the future for the legal industry [Lo]

On 09/06/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, change, changing business models, collaboration, corporate / business world, future, Law Schools, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, new business models, organizational change, pace of change, platforms, reinvent, society, strategy, vision, by Daniel Christian

Digital workplaces are the future for the legal industry — from abovethelaw.com by James Lo
The speed of business is accelerating, and digital workplaces are answering the demand for a better way to work, by providing a single platform to manage content, people, and applications.

Excerpt:

The consumerisation of enterprise technology has led to an increasing expectation from lawyers, clients, and business users alike that the legal technology they are using in the workplace for collaboration, knowledge management, transaction management, and more should be as useful, intuitive, and user-friendly as what they are already using at home on a day-to-day basis.

Digital workplaces are answering the demand for a better way to work, by providing a single platform to manage content, people, and applications. As law firms review their technology strategy for the next three to five years, there is an opportunity to create digital workplaces that will match how lawyers will want to work in the future. Within a digital workplace, a lawyer will have access to relevant data and content, collaborate with both clients and colleagues, share knowledge, and solve problems, all in real-time, from anywhere.

At the same time, clients are expecting firms to be using data, artificial intelligence and other technologies to predict outcomes, reduce costs, improve transparency and ultimately add value.

After 40 Years of Constant Change, What’s Next for the Legal Industry? — from law.com by Dan Packel
Few could have anticipated the dramatic shift in scope and scale the industry has undergone since The American Lawyer’s founding 40 years ago. We asked some of the law’s brightest thinkers what we can expect over the next 10.

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Technology and Upheaval
While it’s easy to conclude that the technological revolution that’s already been unleashed will continue to drive transformation over the next 10 years, it’s harder to pinpoint how.

Expect more and more tasks to become subject to automation—not just contracts and e-discovery but also areas like trademarks and due diligence for mergers, for starters.

Technology and artificial intelligence on their own are noteworthy, but what’s more compelling is the impact they will have on how firms are structured.

“Everything that can be taken out of the hands of subject-matter experts and handed over to the process experts and technologists will be,” says Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe Chairman and CEO Mitch Zuklie. “There will be far fewer associates sitting in rooms with documents and more strategic partnerships among law firms and legal tech providers.”

This transition could help chip away at the supremacy of the billable hour.
…
Not only will technology move up the value chain for litigation, it will also emerge as a greater player on the deal side. Jae Um, director of pricing strategy at Baker McKenzie, expects to see a much greater focus on compliance and regulatory technology in the next five years.

As AI solutions, which depend upon machine learning, are slowly deployed in the marketplace, their efficacy will inevitably grow.

How about a little wild speculation to wrap this up? With more nonlawyer specialists finding professional homes in law firms, it’s a short leap to hybrids between law firms and professional services operations. Imagine consultants and accountants working together with lawyers and technologists to solve clients’ increasingly complex problems. And what about a high-profile merger between a Big Four firm and a global law firm? I wouldn’t rule it out.

Dallas County Community College District Students Receive “GreenLight”? Toward Ownership, Lifelong Access of Academic Records — from linkedin.com by Timothy Marshall; with thanks to Mike Mathews for this resource out on LinkedIn

Excerpt:

(DALLAS) — Gone are the days of a lengthy and sometimes costly process to request educational records for job or college applications. Through its investments in groundbreaking technology, DCCCD is allowing students unprecedented access to their educational transcripts. This places students in the unique position to maintain lifelong digital ownership of their complete academic credentials, with the flexibility to use those records to propel them toward academic and career success.

DCCCD is pleased to announce a new partnership with Dallas-based GreenLight Credentials, a new secure digital locker. With GreenLight, DCCCD students will have wide-ranging access to their academic records anytime, anyplace, by simply clicking a button.

A New Way Forward: CAEL Association Update (August 2019) –from evolllution.com by Marie Cini | President, CAEL
As the labor market continues to evolve, CAEL will play a critical role in establishing a collaborative ecosystem linking learners, employers and postsecondary institutions.

Excerpt:

I’m delighted to announce a new partnership between CAEL and The EvoLLLution to deliver timely information on the latest advances related to serving adult working learners. When you consider the rapidly changing nature of the work our members face, it’s hard to imagine a more aptly named organization to collaborate with!

This partnership will provide CAEL members with fresh thinking twice a month in the form of a brief digital newsletter. The focus will be on lifelong learning and transforming traditional structures to better meet the needs of today’s working learners in communities, across industries, inside all postsecondary institutions.

The future of work in America — from mckinsey.com by Jacques Bughin, James Manyika. and Jonathan Woetzel | July 2019

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Local economies across the country have been on diverging trajectories for years, and ***they are entering the automation age from different starting points.*** Our view incorporates the current state of local labor markets as well as the jobs that could be lost and gained in the decade ahead.

The US labor market looks markedly different today than it did two decades ago. It has been reshaped by dramatic events like the Great Recession but also by a quieter ongoing evolution in the mix and location of jobs. In the decade ahead, the next wave of technology may accelerate the pace of change. Millions of jobs could be phased out even as new ones are created. More broadly, the day-to-day nature of work could change for nearly everyone as intelligent machines become fixtures in the American workplace.
…
The labor market could become even more polarized. Workers with a high school degree or less are four times as likely as those with a bachelor’s degree to be displaced by automation. Reflecting more limited access to education, Hispanic workers are most at risk of displacement, followed by African Americans. Jobs held by nearly 15 million workers ages 18–34 may be automated, so young people will need new career paths to gain an initial foothold in the working world. Roughly 11.5 million workers over age 50 could also be displaced and face the challenge of making late-career moves. The hollowing out of middle wage work could continue.
…
The future of work is not just about how many jobs could be lost and gained. Technology is altering the day-to-day mix of activities associated with more and more jobs over time. The occupational mix of the economy is changing, and the demand for skills is changing along with it. Employers will need to manage large-scale workforce transformations that could involve redefining business processes and workforce needs, retraining and moving some people into new roles, and creating programs for continuous learning. This could be an opportunity to upgrade jobs and make them more rewarding. The choices that employers make will ripple through the communities in which they operate.

The need for a next gen learning platform is quickly approaching us!
Either that, or colleges and universities better get FAR more
responsive/nimble, and focus FAR more on lifelong learning.
This is not a joke.
This is not just text on a web page.
This is a future that’s barreling at us at amazingly fast speeds.
A new chapter is coming at us quickly.

Pearson moves away from print textbooks [Kelly]

On 07/17/2019, in 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, algorithms, analytics, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, bots, Bring your own device (BYOD), change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, Content aggregration, content development, content repositories, data mining, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education, education technology, faculty, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning from the living [class] room, Microlearning, Mobile learning, multimedia, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, platforms, publishing, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, textbooks, tools, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Pearson moves away from print textbooks — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

Excerpt:

All of Pearson’s 1,500 higher education textbooks in the U.S. will now be “digital first.” The company announced its big shift away from print today, calling the new approach a “product as a service model and a generational business shift to be much more like apps, professional software or the gaming industry.”

The digital format will allow Pearson to update textbooks on an ongoing basis, taking into account new developments in the field of study, new technologies, data analytics and efficacy research, the company said in a news announcement. The switch to digital will also lower the cost for students: The average e-book price will be $40, or $79 for a “full suite of digital learning tools.”

Learning Ecosystems

“Can you make AI fairer than a judge? Play our courtroom algorithm game” [Hao & Stray] Plus several other legal-related items.

The WMU-Cooley Law School reduces tuition by 21% — excellent!

Priorities for new lawyers are changing. Can the legal industry keep up? [Datesh, Allen, & Hatcher]

The Future Ready Lawyer [Wolters Kluwer]

Big money is betting on legal industry transformation [Cohen]

The rise of the lawyer [Furlong]

A momentous change in the legal industry garnering little attention [Pretorius]

Digital workplaces are the future for the legal industry [Lo]

After 40 Years of Constant Change, What’s Next for the Legal Industry? [Packel]

The future of work in America [McKinsey]

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