[Interview] "In the AI Era, Learning is Essential to Survive" - Jo Woosung, CEO of MustKnow

Lecture on On-site Utilization Methods for Legal Professionals
If You Ask Poor Questions, You Get Beginner-Level Results
If You Ask Good Questions, You Can Also Prepare General Meeting Reports

"What is needed now is for each lawyer to learn how to use AI at a proficient level. If AI is a flood, the levee has broken. To survive, we must first learn how to swim."

Jo Woosung (55, Judicial Research and Training Institute class 23), CEO and lead attorney of MustKnow, who teaches legal professionals how to utilize AI in legal work, emphasized that the way to survive in the approaching 'AI legal era' is to become more familiar with AI. After working as a corporate and contract dispute specialist lawyer at the law firm Bae, Kim & Lee for 18 years since 1997, Jo opened the MustKnow law office in 2016. Besides his main work as a lawyer, he has also given lectures on humanities, communication, and marketing to lawyers.

[Image source=Beomryul Newspaper]

When OpenAI was launched in 2022, he described the impact as "like a machine gun falling into the Stone Age." He mastered OpenAI on his own and, whenever new versions like CHAT GPT 4.0, Google Bard, and Naver ClovaX were released, he studied them through YouTube and other platforms, then began sharing his know-how on Facebook. Word of mouth spread, and he started receiving lecture requests from corporate officials and Facebook friends. As demand for lectures gradually increased, he set up a classroom in April and began working as a full-time AI legal instructor. Over about two months, the number of students reached 200.

His lecture topic can be summarized as "How to converse with AI." He provides students with about 200 prompts (commands) and conducts practice-oriented lectures where students apply them to over 40 cases. He explained, "The level of AI conversation varies depending on the questions asked," and shared an example from his lectures. In a situation where an air fryer manufacturing company experienced an explosion accident with its product, a beginner-level question would limit AI’s role to drafting a press release. However, if one masters the commands, AI can be instructed to analyze the cause of the accident and even prepare a shareholders' meeting report anticipating various cases of sales decline due to recalls.

Actual testimonials from students continue. Many say things like, "It feels like talking to a PhD rather than a middle school student," "It feels like I have an incredible weapon," and "Applying it to work has made tasks ten to a hundred times faster," indicating a significant reduction in work time. Jo said, "Local lawyers have expressed gratitude as the range of tasks they can handle has expanded," adding, "Tasks that were previously avoided, such as M&A and reviewing English contracts, are now being handled relatively easily through AI."

[Image source=Beomryul Newspaper]

Of course, AI has its shortcomings. Issues such as inaccurate answers when searching for relevant laws and precedents, known as the 'hallucination' phenomenon, remain challenges to be addressed. However, Jo stated, "AI’s inaccuracies can be corrected after review later," and added, "Treating AI as a dangerous object out of vague fear is a big mistake." He further noted, "Even now, partner lawyers review the work done by associate lawyers. It’s just that a new assistant called AI has appeared; the work itself is not fundamentally different."

Jo predicts that soon clients will come to lawyers with AI-generated responses in hand. In fact, among his students who are corporate legal team members, it has become common to seek answers from AI before entrusting cases to lawyers. He said, "There are increasing cases where AI’s answers are faster and more accurate compared to those given by lawyers." He emphasized, "In the future, for lawyers to maintain competitiveness, they must add value to AI’s answers and focus on tasks that AI cannot perform better."

Jo will be a speaker on the first day (26th) of the '2024 Legal Tech Artificial Intelligence Special Exhibition (LTAS),' jointly hosted by the Legal Times and Messe Isang, Korea’s leading exhibition company, from June 26 to 28. He plans to present on the topic "Application and Utilization of Generative AI in the Legal Field and Introduction to ‘Super Lawyer’." He expressed his determination, saying, "In previous AI events, the discussions were too grandiose, making it difficult to apply immediately in practice. Through this LTAS lecture, I will empirically demonstrate how AI can be used in practice and how helpful it is."

Yoo Ji-in, Legal Times Reporter

※This article is based on content supplied by Law Times.