The American Arbitration Association (AAA) and its international division, the International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) have announce the release of the AAAi Lab, “a web center supporting AAA users, arbitrator, in-house counsel and law firms with policy guidance, educational webinars and tools for embracing generative AI in alternative dispute resolution.”
I met with Bridget McCormack, President and CEO and Chief Legal Officer, Eric Tuchmann, to discuss this exciting new initiative..
McCormack joined AAA in early 2023 and almost immediately kicked off AI initiatives. Staff across the organization were tapped to explore scenarios and use cases for Chat GPT. They investigated both administrative and arbitration related applications.
In addition, the organization invited a group arbitration panelists to utilize products such as CoCounsel and Claude and other technologies to explore the development of new applications. One key outcome is the beta version of a new product called ClauseBuilder AI. The product is scheduled to launch at LegalWeek 2024.
According to McCormack “Innovation is in our DNA, and we see generative AI technology as an opportunity to support our mission to lead the world in providing innovative measures to prevent and resolve disputes fairly and efficiently.”
Tuchmann, led the team which developed “the first of many lab initiatives that will provide data protocols, guidelines, rules and clauses that affirm our values—integrity, service, process fidelity, innovation and inclusion. We’re excited to share webinars and workshops to showcase how the AAA is building Generative AI into the workflow of alternative dispute resolution.”
No cost to participate.
Although AAA is branded as an “association” it is open to anyone and so is the AAAi Lab. The Lab is positioned to be a collaboration center for the ADR community “providing a platform to engage with the AAA’s ongoing efforts in leading product and service innovations and to participate in defining the future of ADR. At launch, the Lab will feature
- AAA’s guidance on AI and ADR,
- link to contributions made by others in the ADR community
- News
- Event pages
- updates on AAAi Lab’s work,
The AAAi Lab’s webinar and policy projects are supported by David L. Evans, former AAA Board Member, Joshua Walker, co-founder of the Stanford Law School’s CodeX program and one of its first business start-up off-shoots, Lex Machina (and author of “On Legal AI”), and Diana Didia, chief information and innovation officer of the AAA.
Didia will lead workshops with her team and provide best practice recommendations around AI and technology improvements for ADR practitioners and users. “One of our first initiatives involves showcasing at Legal Week how the AAA is using AI to improve both internal processes and the customer experience, as well as product innovations showing how easily transferable such tools are across our legal community.
ClauseBuilder® AI (Beta) which they will launch on January 30, 2024 at Legal Week. According to Didia, the ClauseBuilder will enable in-house counsel and law firms to quickly add written AAA ADR clauses using natural language AI search and retrieval capabilities. The website allows people to sign up to test the product.
AI Principles provide an anchoring vision, built on responsible AI principles, to best serve the ADR community and to ensure ethical AI innovation across the ADR spectrum. For more information, please visit AAAi Lab About the American Arbitration Association
Visit AAAi Lab to explore the resources and sign up for a demo of ClauseBuilder.
