Technically Legal - A Legal Technology and Innovation Podcast

• Ben Chiriboga (Nexl) on Legal Tech, Innovation, and the Future of Law

  A conversation with Ben Chiriboga, Chief Growth Officer at legal CRM company Nexl and host of the This Legal Life podcast. Ben shares his journey from a litigator to a legal tech innovator. He recounts how an early e-discovery tool using natural language processing completed in six hours what had taken him six months, leading to an epiphany about the power of legal technology. The conversation delves into the legal industry's historical resistance to technology, prioritizing billable hours over efficiency, and how Ben leveraged his legal experience to transition into a new role in tech. Ben discusses the challenges of building a legal tech company and the critical distinction between a general CRM and one designed specifically for law firms. The episode concludes with a thought-provoking discussion on the impact of AI on the legal profession, focusing on what aspects of law are truly "fundamental" and what new roles and jobs AI will create. Key Takeaways The Power of Tech: Legal tech tools can drastically improve efficiency, as demonstrated by an e-discovery tool that performed six months of work in just six hours. Transitioning Careers: A background in law can be a valuable asset in the legal tech sector, but success requires adapting to new skills like sales, marketing, and growth strategy. The "Why" Behind a Legal CRM: General CRMs are built for sales teams with built-in incentive structures, whereas a legal-specific CRM, like Nexle, is designed to passively collect and enrich data without requiring lawyers to manually input information. The Fundamentals of Law: The human element—relationship building, counseling, and strategic advisory—is the core function of a lawyer that AI cannot replicate. The Future of Legal Jobs: AI's true impact will not be in better-drafted motions, but in the creation of new "legal adjacent" roles and business models that merge legal expertise with technology and data.

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• Do What the Bots Cannot: How AI Is Reshaping Legal Marketing, Data Analysis and Biz Dev, But Not the Human Connection (Gyi Tsakalakis, AttorneySync)

  We welcome back legal marketing expert Gyi Tsakalakis, President of AttorneySync and host of the Lunch Hour Legal Marketing podcast. Five years after Gyi’s first appearance on Technically Legal, he discusses the dramatic shifts in digital marketing for law firms, driven largely by the rise of artificial intelligence. Gyi highlights how AI is changing the landscape for lawyers, from automating back-office functions and data analysis to influencing content creation and search engine optimization (SEO). He explains why law firms must diversify their marketing channels beyond just Google to adapt to the new era of conversational search and AI overviews. Despite these technological advances, Gyi emphasizes that the human connection, including a simple handwritten note, remains the most powerful tool in an attorney's arsenal. He argues that as technology automates the mundane, it forces lawyers to focus on the relationships and empathy that truly differentiate their practice. Key Takeaways: Diversify Marketing Channels: Law firms must move beyond a "one-trick pony" approach with platforms like Google and diversify their client acquisition strategies to include social media, email, and local events. The Problem with Client Intake: Gyi discusses the persistent issue of lawyers not responding to inquiries and how AI can help automate certain parts of the intake process, though the human touch is still crucial for building trust. Do What the Bots Cannot: Attorneys should leverage AI for tasks that can be automated (e.g., scheduling, data analysis) to free up time to focus on complex legal work and building meaningful client relationships. AI for Data Analysis: A powerful, overlooked use case for AI in a law firm is analyzing internal data, such as call transcripts and financial records, to identify blind spots and inform marketing strategies. The Future of SEO and Search: Gyi predicts that search will become more conversational and influenced by AI Overviews and that ad-based models will be integrated into all major AI platforms.  

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• Story Protocol: Building a Modern IP Infrastructure and Protecting Creators in the AI Age (Andrea Muttoni - President Story Foundation)

  This episode features a conversation with Andrea Muttoni, President of Story Protocol. The discussion explores how blockchain technology is being used as a foundational infrastructure for intellectual property (IP), aiming to simplify and modernize the process of registration, licensing, and monetization for creators and IP owners. Muttoni details his journey from a bedroom music producer to a product manager at Amazon and eventually to a leader in the blockchain industry, driven by a passion for the intersection of technology and creativity. The conversation delves into the core problems Story Protocol aims to solve, particularly the complexities of copyright, fair use, and attribution in the age of AI-generated content. Muttoni introduces key concepts like the Programmable IP License (PIL), a customizable and on-chain license that makes IP rights more transparent and accessible. He also provides an overview of Poseidon, a new initiative that leverages the Story Protocol to create a marketplace for IP-safe, real-world data needed to train AI models, ensuring that data creators and owners are fairly compensated. Key Takeaways Andrea's Background: From a bedroom hip-hop producer to a product manager at Amazon working on Kindle and Alexa, Muttoni shares his path to the world of crypto and blockchain. What is Story Protocol?: A deep dive into Story Protocol's mission to create an open IP blockchain. It's a way to register, license, and monetize IP in a more liquid and accessible way. The Programmable IP License (PIL): Explanation of how this universal, customizable, and on-chain license simplifies IP transactions and makes it easier for others to legally use a creator's work. Introducing Poseidon: Details on the new platform built on the Story Protocol to address the "data gold rush" for AI. Poseidon allows for the licensing of real-world, IP-cleared data to AI companies, ensuring fair compensation for contributors. Promoting Adoption: Discussion on how Story Protocol uses a web3 incentive model to encourage widespread adoption and create a network effect for its IP infrastructure. Why Story Protocol?: Muttoni explains what makes their platform uniquely suited for IP rights compared to other blockchains, emphasizing that the network was built from the ground up specifically for this use case. Things We Talk About in this Episode Story Protocol: story.foundation Story Protocol IP Portal: portal.story.foundation Poseidon: psdn.ai Story Protocol Developer Docs: docs.story.foundation WIPO Report: A report on intangible assets, mentioned as a key indicator of the value of intellectual property.  

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• Nelson Rosario on Decentralized AI: An Alternative to Big Tech or a Complimentary Approach?

  Crypto lawyer Nelson Rosario returns to the show to discuss the evolving landscape of decentralized AI and his role as General Counsel for the the Advanced AI Society (formerly known as the Decentralized AI Society), an association focused on engineering best practices, advocating for policy, fostering community, and enabling capital formation for decentralized AI startups Nelson discusses the changing definition of decentralization, highlighting its origins in early crypto's focus on resilience and censorship resistance, and its current intersection with artificial intelligence. He explains the core reasons driving decentralized AI efforts: the potential for single service providers to control our access to AI models, computing power, and the data that underlies it all. The conversation explores how decentralized AI aims to offer an alternative to large tech companies like Facebook, Microsoft, and OpenAI,  But Nelson also points out the challenges of competing with resource rich organizations and suggests that decentralized AI might complement existing systems by "chopping it up" into distributed components.  The discussion also touches upon current players in the decentralized AI space, notably Bitensor and HyperCycle, and highlights the role of decentralized storage solutions like Filecoin and Arweave. Nelson concludes by reflecting on the potentially profound societal impact of AI, likening it to other "tectonic technological revolutions" in human history. Drawing from the "Butlerian Jihad" concept in Frank Herbert's Dune, he cautions against blindly trusting AI and underscores the need for humans to remain intentional in their use of technology to prevent a decline in critical thinking and creativity. Key Takeaways: Decentralization in AI aims to prevent single points of control over models, compute, and data, promoting censorship resistance. Decentralized AI faces challenges in competing with large, centralized tech companies due to their immense resources, but can serve as a complementary set of systems. DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure) is crucial for the robust existence of decentralized AI applications. Industry associations like the Advanced AI Society play a vital role in setting standards, advocating for policy, building community, and attracting capital for decentralized AI projects. AI represents a transformative technological shift, and intentional human engagement is critical to navigate its societal implications.

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• The "Blueprint” for Authenticity: How Official AI Protects Image and Likeness in the Digital Age (Dave Siegfried, CEO)

  In this episode, Dave Siegfried discusses the company he heads, Official AI -- a company focused on helping its customers create and verify authentic AI content. Siegfried, a "recovering accountant" with a background in tech and media licensing, discusses his journey from co-founding Audiosocket, a music licensing platform, to addressing challenges in generative AI. The conversation highlights the evolution of intellectual property protection in the digital age. Siegfried explains how Official AI empowers individuals and brands to create AI-generated images and videos with consent, credit, and compensation for the use of their name, image, likeness, and voice. He details Official AI's "vault technology," which creates a "blueprint" of a person's likeness from a small set of images, enabling authorized creation of synthetic media. The discussion also delves into provenance technology and the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) open-source standard, which Official AI leverages to track content origin and changes, ensuring authenticity. Siegfried touches on the challenges of verifying content on social media platforms and the future role of blockchain technology in creating immutable records of consent. The episode concludes with insights into Official AI's business model, customer base (including athletes and historic estates), and future roadmap. Key Takeaways: Generative AI presents significant challenges and opportunities for intellectual property rights, particularly concerning name, image, likeness, and voice. Official AI aims to proactively address these challenges by providing a platform for consent-based AI content creation. Provenance technology, including C2PA, is crucial for verifying the authenticity and authorized use of AI-generated content. The legal landscape surrounding AI and publicity rights is rapidly evolving, requiring adaptable technological solutions. Things We Talk About in this Episode Official AI Website: Visit theofficial.ai to learn more about their platform and services. Contact Dave Siegfried: Dave can be reached at [email protected]. Content Authenticity Initiative (C2PA): Explore the open-source standard for content provenance and authenticity at c2pa.org. Episode Credits Editing and Production: Grant Blackstock Theme Music: Home Base (Instrumental Version) by TA2MI  

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