THE FIELD GUIDE
Learn how AI works.
Start with the concepts behind the tools: models, prompts, context windows, and agents. Each guide explains what the idea means for the work you give an AI system.
Not sure what to read first? Choose a reading path →
Exploring agentic systems? Visit the Agents field guide →
10 Industries Affected by Artificial Intelligence
Explore how AI affects ten industries, including law, healthcare, finance, education, and manufacturing, with examples of opportunities and challenges.
Read the guide →AI FIELD GUIDEAI Alignment: Goals, Challenges, and Human Values
Learn what AI alignment means, why matching AI behavior to human goals is difficult, and how alignment relates to responsible AI and general intelligence.
Read the guide →AI FIELD GUIDEAI Terms Explained: Models, Algorithms, and Training
A plain-English introduction to AI terms, including models, algorithms, training, supervised learning, and context windows, for professional readers.
Read the guide →AI FIELD GUIDEResponsible AI: Fairness, Privacy, and Accountability
Understand responsible AI through fairness, transparency, accountability, privacy, and security, and why these principles matter in professional work.
Read the guide →AI FIELD GUIDEThe AI Black Box Problem: Explainability and Trust
Why a convincing AI answer can still be hard to verify, what explainability tools reveal, and how to keep professional judgment in the loop.
Read the guide →AI FIELD GUIDEWhat Are AI Agents? How They Work and Where Humans Stay in Control
Learn what AI agents are, how tools and memory work, where agents differ from assistants, and the legal oversight needed before they act.
Read the guide →AI FIELD GUIDEWhat Is AI Fine-Tuning? Training vs. Prompting
Understand fine-tuning as further training of an existing AI model, how it differs from prompting, and questions to consider before using it.
Read the guide →AI FIELD GUIDEWhat Is Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)?
Learn what artificial general intelligence means, how definitions differ, why current AI examples are not definitive, and how to evaluate AGI claims.
Read the guide →AI FIELD GUIDEWhat Is Artificial Intelligence? A Plain-English Guide
Learn what artificial intelligence is, how machine learning and generative AI fit, where narrow AI ends, and what to verify before trusting an AI result.
Read the guide →AI FIELD GUIDEWhat Is Generative AI? How It Works and Examples
Learn how generative AI creates text, images, and other content, explore practical examples, and understand how it differs from other AI systems.
Read the guide →AI FIELD GUIDEWhat Is Narrow AI? Definition, Examples, and Limits
Narrow AI is designed for defined tasks. See real examples, how it differs from AGI, and what to check before relying on a system.
Read the guide →AI FIELD GUIDEWhat Is an AI Assistant? Legal Uses, Agent Tools, and Limits
Understand what AI assistants can do in legal work, how they differ from agents, how memory works, and what lawyers must verify.
Read the guide →AI FIELD GUIDEWhat Is an AI Context Window? Tokens and Limits
Understand an AI context window, how it limits the information a model can use, and why that matters for long documents and conversations.
Read the guide →AI FIELD GUIDEWhat Is an AI Prompt? Examples and Better Instructions
Learn what an AI prompt does, see examples, and understand how context, instructions, and prompt engineering shape a language model’s responses.
Read the guide →AI FIELD GUIDEWhat Is the AI Singularity? Possibilities and Limits
Understand the AI Singularity, its connection to recursive self-improvement, and the evidence and assumptions behind predictions of superintelligence.
Read the guide →October 2, 2026University of Illinois v. IWCC: A Legal Judgment Lab
Explore the IWCC order through factfinding, appellate review, and conflicting sources. Practice the judgment needed to verify an AI-assisted case brief.
Read the guide →AI FIELD GUIDEWould Your AI Tell You You’re Wrong?
Use Mahan v. Marion Police Pension Board to test three confident claims against the opinion, examine adverse evidence, and build a better AI review prompt.
Read the guide →September 27, 2026AI Agent Failure Modes and Incident Response in Legal Work
A practical legal-agent failure map and incident response sequence for false citations, prompt injection, data leaks, wrong actions, and system drift.
Read the guide →September 27, 2026AI Agent Permissions and Oversight for Law Firms
A practical permission ladder for legal AI agents, with approval gates, confidentiality checks, prompt-injection controls, audit records, and recovery steps.
Read the guide →September 27, 2026AI Agents in Legal Workflows: A Matter Walkthrough
Follow a fictional legal matter through an AI agent workflow. See the source checks, approval points, failure branch, and lawyer review before any action.
Read the guide →September 27, 2026How AI Agents Work: Architecture, Tools, and Memory
See the anatomy of an AI agent: model and tool loop, retrieval, context versus memory, orchestration, multi-agent tradeoffs, and control boundaries.
Read the guide →October 3, 2026How AI Agents Use Computers and Browsers
Learn how AI agents use browser controls and desktop screenshots, how this differs from connected tools, and how to verify results and enforce permissions.
Read the guide →October 3, 2026Background and Scheduled AI Agents
Understand background, scheduled, and event-driven agents: triggers, fresh inputs, saved progress, retries, permissions, and useful notifications.
Read the guide →September 27, 2026How to Choose and Pilot a Legal AI Agent
A law-firm decision guide for legal AI agents: workflow fit, vendor questions, build-versus-buy, reviewed cost, pilot gates, rollout, and exit planning.
Read the guide →September 27, 2026How to Evaluate an AI Agent for Legal Work
Test a legal AI agent with fictional matters, repeated trials, source checks, permission failures, human review time, and a copyable pilot scorecard.
Read the guide →September 25, 2026AI Model Capabilities: What Stronger Models Can Do and Why They Matter
Learn what stronger AI models can do with documents, images, tools, and complex tasks, and how to test reliability, cost, and human oversight in your work.
Read the guide →September 14, 2026Recursive Self-Improvement: When AI Improves How It Improves
How recursive self-improvement works, what researchers have demonstrated, and why a self-improving AI would not automatically trigger the Singularity.
Read the guide →October 4, 2026Can AI Brief an Appellate Opinion Accurately?
Inspect three AI case briefs of Geller v. Uber, their source-linked comparison, exact prompt, and a downloadable legal-review worksheet.
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