Ads are “like a last resort for us for a business model…ads plus AI is sort of uniquely unsettling”. Sam Altman May 2024 as quoted in Hacker News.

“To start, we plan to test ads at the bottom of answers in ChatGPT when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation.” OpenAI, January 16, 2026, also from Hacker News.

And so it begins.

My latest post for Above the Law: Despite what we hear from vendors and pundits, the commoditization of GenAI may be inevitable. Here’s my thoughts on what that could mean for legal tech vendors and for the lawyers and legal professionals relying on GenAI tools. And what we can do to prepare.

After watching lawyers get sanctioned almost daily for GenAI hallucinations and inaccurcies while many others claim they’ve never used it, maybe its time for mandatory GenAI CLE. Three states already require tech training. 39 states have adopted Comment 8 to the model competency rule. So there is precedent.

GenAI is too impactful to leave GenAI competency to chance. It’s not as crazy as it sounds. Here’s my Above the Law post making the case.

Here’s my post for Above the law on the troubling disconnect in legal tech identified by Hwang Jae Hyuk: 70% of investment flows to vendors targeting the 40% of time lawyers spend on research and analysis, while only 30% goes toward solving the administrative burdens that actually eat up most of our days.

It’s a bit ironic since GenAI struggles with the complex legal work it’s being funded to handle, but actually excels at the boring back-office tasks that get overlooked by investors chasing shiny objects. I guess billing software just isn’t as sexy as AI that hallucinates case law.

Back from CES 2026. Here’s my top ten impressions from this year’s show. Not surprisingly, the headline this was AI everywhere all the time. Lots of discussions about agentic AI, wearables and robotics all powered by AI. But precious little about the AI challenges like the infrastructure gap, the erosion of critical thinking skills and the threat to privacy and our legal processes. 

Consumer electronics are predictive of legal tech risks AND benefits. Which is why I go every year.

Here’s my post for Above the Law.

AI wearables were everywhere at CES 2026. Smart glasses that whisper answers in your ear, AI enabled contact lenses, AI necklaces. They see what you see and hear what you hear. Impressive tech, but what happens when a witness testifies while wearing smart glasses feeding them answers? How do we handle discovery demands for everything someone’s wearables recorded? Who’s liable when the AI whispers wrong advice in a critical moment?

We’re still scrambling to deal with deepfakes. We better add wearables to our list of AI challenges.

Here’s my post on these issues for Above the Law.

At CES 2026, a McKinsey & Company  panel outlined the  “new” skills employers will value in the age of agentic AI. These include things like asking the right questions, showing judgment in gray areas, and demonstrating passion and resilience. All things GenAI can’t do or can’t do very well. 

But these are the skills that have always separated the exceptional lawyers from everyone else. They will be even more essential in the future though. 

Here’s my recent post for Above the Law

I’ve been an agentic AI skeptic. But after this week at CES, trying ChatGPT Atlas to book my flights and hearing Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang explain why 2026 might be the year of agents, I’m at least convinced legal can’t ignore this technology or the blessings and curse it could bring.

In any event, the biggest risk isn’t agentic AI making mistakes, it’s lawyers who stop thinking critically about what it suggests.

Here’s my post for Above the Law.