Paper: In Praise of Generative AI – 65 Pages Posted: 9 Feb 2026

Abstract

In this article, I team up with the Worst People You Will Ever Meet in Law to praise generative AI. After introducing themselves, these actors explain how this technology is a godsend. The terrible lawyer describes how he remains asleep at the wheel and turns over motions, briefing, and client counseling to erratic AI. The worst clients explain how they now prepare all legal documents themselves and refuse to pay attorneys’ unwarranted fees. The lazy judge describes how she replaces party submissions with AI and delegates the task of reasoned judgment to technology. The horrible law professor describes how he’s outsourced teaching, assessment, and scholarship to a machine. The disengaged law student explains how she uses AI to circumvent class discussions and assignments. And the sovereign citizen explains how he’s able to generate harassing nonsense at an unprecedented scale. I close with reflections on what this might mean for the technology’s use in legal spaces, including the need for both advocates and critics of generative AI to consider how the technology will be misused and abused. Finally, I warn that prolonged generative AI usage might transform reasonable individuals into my terrible coauthors.