AI & Law: Winograd Schema Challenge and Legal Semantics

Legal semantics and the AI Winograd Schema Challenge

by Dr. Lance B. Eliot

For a free podcast of this article, visit this link https://ai-law.libsyn.com/website or find our AI & Law podcast series on Spotify, iTunes, iHeartRadio, plus on other audio services. For the latest trends about AI & Law, visit our website www.ai-law.legal

Key briefing points about this article:

• Words matter, especially in the field of law
• A recent case was appealed due to the meaning differences of “typically” versus “normally”
• Some see daylight between those two words, others assert they are synonyms
• AI systems that use natural language capabilities are faced with similar issues
• The Winograd Schema Challenge in the AI field showcases these difficulties

Introduction

Lawyers seem to relish the thought-provoking aspects of solving word puzzles.

In a moment, I’ll be asking you to ponder the meaning of something that is typically occurring versus something that is normally occurring. You’ll see that this is ostensibly a challenging legal matter. Make sure to put your legal beagle thinking cap on.

First, some foundational aspects to set the scene appropriately.