This fall, Samford University Cumberland School of Law’s externships program partnered with Smarter Reality LLC and Frank Coppersmith ’94 to offer an innovative new externship opportunity for its students. The experience allowed three student participants to virtually learn more about the intricate combination of law and the use of artificial intelligence (A.I.).

 

The goal of the externship was for the students to understand the rapidly changing laws related to the commercial and personal use of drones and A.I. chatbots. Students researched the rules behind drone use on or near U.S. Government (USG) facilities including military installations, as well as federal and state drone laws. They also conducted interviews with small business owners, researched chatbot technology, and implemented the question and framework in the selected chatbot technology.

 

Coppersmith said, “I was thrilled to have a chance to work with law students from Cumberland. A.I. is rapidly transforming the practice of law, and students will need to know not only how to apply the law, but also how to transform it into content usable by future A.I. technology. The students did an amazing job developing a broad understanding of drone law and then turning that into a working chatbot, one form of consumer friendly A.I. I'm hopeful that the externship provided a grounding on these timely concepts and helped to get them ready for future legal practice where technology and the law are closely connected.”    

 

Here, each student shares their experience about participating in the externship:

During my work on the drone chatbot project, I was exposed to new venues of law and regulation I had not even thought about before. The focus on drone law and A.I. was enlightening and revealed just how truly uncharted the territory was. While I cannot speak for anyone except myself, when I had previously thought of drones, I only thought of either “Hunter Killers” or recreational drones, nothing in between. While yes, these military grade drones are highly regulated and not allowed in private hands, it was the thousands of designs of drones in between that really caught my eye. Whether it was concerning the recreational use of drones, whether they can have a camera, how much they can weigh, how fast they could fly, or otherwise, it was truly interesting to see the uses many had for drones. As a group we eventually steered our focus towards not just recreational users, but small business owners as well. Here, the possibilities for expanded drone use was not just fascinating, but also uncharted as well. There was a lot out there that no one had talked about yet and it was exciting and eye-opening to talk to some of the few who had. I loved my experience and would love to do additional work like this! It was challenging and teaching, but even more importantly, it was rewarding for all of us when we got to see the chatbot finally come to life as a result of our work.

Vina Nguyen

I feel very fortunate that I was able to participate in this externship with Smarter Reality. Very few law school courses prepare you to take a statute and make it digestible for a layperson. In this case, we had to make FAA statutes digestible for an A.I., a chatbot, which is more difficult because the A.I. essentially knows nothing at first. It’s also very satisfying to point at this chatbot and say, “we made this.” This was a very unique opportunity to explore A.I. and learn skills that will help me in the future, and I am so appreciative of the experience.