Jill Smith
@jaslawlib.bsky.social
Head of Reference, Georgetown University Law Center Library. Opinions my own.
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I was reminded today that people praise librarians for doing a lot of work and "never taking credit."
No, we have no mechanism for that. But it is always really nice to see a thank-you in footnote #1 of your final article.
Too often, only the RAs (some of whom we have to bail out) get the thanks.
No, we have no mechanism for that. But it is always really nice to see a thank-you in footnote #1 of your final article.
Too often, only the RAs (some of whom we have to bail out) get the thanks.
November 18, 2025 at 9:38 PM
I was reminded today that people praise librarians for doing a lot of work and "never taking credit."
No, we have no mechanism for that. But it is always really nice to see a thank-you in footnote #1 of your final article.
Too often, only the RAs (some of whom we have to bail out) get the thanks.
No, we have no mechanism for that. But it is always really nice to see a thank-you in footnote #1 of your final article.
Too often, only the RAs (some of whom we have to bail out) get the thanks.
What perfect album came out the year I turned 16?
November 17, 2025 at 1:57 PM
What perfect album came out the year I turned 16?
A CLE company contacted me to create a legal research program FOR FREE. They also wanted the recording (and 100% of the profits) in perpetuity.
When I emailed back and said I did not work for free, they immediately asked what my rate was.
I didn't respond.
When I emailed back and said I did not work for free, they immediately asked what my rate was.
I didn't respond.
This goes for scholars too. I've had conferences try to get me to agree that they can record and resell my presentation forever and that the materials now belong to them
The Medical Library Association contracts are the worst I've ever rejected 📚(and yes I've told them that, I tried multiple times)
The Medical Library Association contracts are the worst I've ever rejected 📚(and yes I've told them that, I tried multiple times)
When you are a new creator, whether in prose, comics, or other media, it can be very tempting to agree to every convention or other event that you're asked to do. Exposure is great, right? And it's wonderful to be wanted.
November 13, 2025 at 2:33 PM
A CLE company contacted me to create a legal research program FOR FREE. They also wanted the recording (and 100% of the profits) in perpetuity.
When I emailed back and said I did not work for free, they immediately asked what my rate was.
I didn't respond.
When I emailed back and said I did not work for free, they immediately asked what my rate was.
I didn't respond.
Reposted by Jill Smith
If you think that professors exist as repositories of knowledge that students ask for answers, you’re missing the entire point of a college education.
We’re here to teach students how to do research, how to analyze and argue, how to think for themselves — how to find the answers on their own.
We’re here to teach students how to do research, how to analyze and argue, how to think for themselves — how to find the answers on their own.
Wow. Just wow.
"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
"Students pay premium prices for information that AI now delivers instantly and for free. A business student can ask ChatGPT to explain supply chain optimization or generate market analysis in seconds. The traditional lecture-and-test model faces its Blockbuster moment."
When Knowledge is Free, What are Professors For?
Higher Education Must Stop Competing with AI on Information and Start Teaching What Machines Can’t Do
www.forbes.com
October 16, 2025 at 1:45 PM
If you think that professors exist as repositories of knowledge that students ask for answers, you’re missing the entire point of a college education.
We’re here to teach students how to do research, how to analyze and argue, how to think for themselves — how to find the answers on their own.
We’re here to teach students how to do research, how to analyze and argue, how to think for themselves — how to find the answers on their own.
A CLE provider just had the gall to ask me to do an advanced legal research presentation for them without compensation.
My "no" was swift.
Just...don't do this.
My "no" was swift.
Just...don't do this.
August 27, 2025 at 4:04 PM
A CLE provider just had the gall to ask me to do an advanced legal research presentation for them without compensation.
My "no" was swift.
Just...don't do this.
My "no" was swift.
Just...don't do this.
It happened faster than I thought.
And I'm a pessimist.
And I'm a pessimist.
First time a judge has decided a case based on hallucinated case law in the US that I've encountered.
caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ga-cou...
caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ga-cou...
July 4, 2025 at 12:41 AM
It happened faster than I thought.
And I'm a pessimist.
And I'm a pessimist.
I play a game called Linxicon (linxicon.com) and I've never seen as perfect a law school board as this one:
May 23, 2025 at 10:37 PM
I play a game called Linxicon (linxicon.com) and I've never seen as perfect a law school board as this one:
Wow - after yesterday's barn-burner of a letter announcing withdrawal from AALL membership, we have the possibility of a new professional organization for law librarians?
I am intrigued.
I am intrigued.
April 30, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Wow - after yesterday's barn-burner of a letter announcing withdrawal from AALL membership, we have the possibility of a new professional organization for law librarians?
I am intrigued.
I am intrigued.
Reposted by Jill Smith
Couldn't be more thrilled for this achievement and congratulations to my dear friend and colleague @gostin.bsky.social for his important role in helping to secure this treaty.
After over three years of negotiations, WHO members agreed today on a landmark #PandemicAgreement. In response, the O’Neill Institute issued a statement from co-faculty directors, Professors @michelebgoodwin.bsky.social and @gostin.bsky.social.
Read here: oneill.law.georgetown.edu/press/statem...
Read here: oneill.law.georgetown.edu/press/statem...
April 16, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Couldn't be more thrilled for this achievement and congratulations to my dear friend and colleague @gostin.bsky.social for his important role in helping to secure this treaty.
Reposted by Jill Smith
LLMs can lecture (with mistakes, of course).
LLMs can't and will never do what good teachers do: observe and understand students, why they're struggling, what inspires them, how they learn best, and then adjust accordingly.
These people are a menace, their products are all scams.
LLMs can't and will never do what good teachers do: observe and understand students, why they're struggling, what inspires them, how they learn best, and then adjust accordingly.
These people are a menace, their products are all scams.
Chrisman Frank, one of the educational entrepreneurs who wants to build a new generation of Elon Musks, thinks teachers are “glorified babysitters” and that AI is superior; he says his AI-based app will be a “neutron bomb” for education www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Meet the educational entrepreneurs who want to teach a new generation of Elon Musks
The billionaire's admirers and ex-employees have launched online schools and an “unapologetically elitist” AI tutor.
www.motherjones.com
March 21, 2025 at 2:12 PM
LLMs can lecture (with mistakes, of course).
LLMs can't and will never do what good teachers do: observe and understand students, why they're struggling, what inspires them, how they learn best, and then adjust accordingly.
These people are a menace, their products are all scams.
LLMs can't and will never do what good teachers do: observe and understand students, why they're struggling, what inspires them, how they learn best, and then adjust accordingly.
These people are a menace, their products are all scams.
Always a good day to re-up this. Also, I'm collecting receipts on legal research AI tools mistakes and hallucinations, so please send them my way if you find them.
So, Westlaw can now do ad hoc 50-state surveys using their AI. I used the weirdest thing I learned when studying for the NH bar 30 years ago to test it.
tl;dr I wouldn't trust it for a final answer (not that I would with any AI, but...)
tl;dr I wouldn't trust it for a final answer (not that I would with any AI, but...)
March 20, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Always a good day to re-up this. Also, I'm collecting receipts on legal research AI tools mistakes and hallucinations, so please send them my way if you find them.
So, Westlaw can now do ad hoc 50-state surveys using their AI. I used the weirdest thing I learned when studying for the NH bar 30 years ago to test it.
tl;dr I wouldn't trust it for a final answer (not that I would with any AI, but...)
tl;dr I wouldn't trust it for a final answer (not that I would with any AI, but...)
March 12, 2025 at 4:56 PM
So, Westlaw can now do ad hoc 50-state surveys using their AI. I used the weirdest thing I learned when studying for the NH bar 30 years ago to test it.
tl;dr I wouldn't trust it for a final answer (not that I would with any AI, but...)
tl;dr I wouldn't trust it for a final answer (not that I would with any AI, but...)
Reposted by Jill Smith
Very good thread. I'd also direct extra fire and ire toward the board of trustees.
While faculty, frontline staff, and students are the most immediate faces you see, please lay off them if you're a member of the public. We feel the brunt of their decisions first and foremost.
While faculty, frontline staff, and students are the most immediate faces you see, please lay off them if you're a member of the public. We feel the brunt of their decisions first and foremost.
March 11, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Very good thread. I'd also direct extra fire and ire toward the board of trustees.
While faculty, frontline staff, and students are the most immediate faces you see, please lay off them if you're a member of the public. We feel the brunt of their decisions first and foremost.
While faculty, frontline staff, and students are the most immediate faces you see, please lay off them if you're a member of the public. We feel the brunt of their decisions first and foremost.
Reposted by Jill Smith
"Pronoun policing" is also an amazing charge to make when the Trump admin is literally policing what trans people call ourselves on our own documents
i’m sorry, i’m tired of this shit. there was no pronoun policing. i have encountered exactly three or four land acknowledgments in like ten years, and the most you’ll hear about “intersectionality” is in liberal nonprofits. this is just freefloating resentment masquerading as analysis.
Elissa Slotkin told Tim Alberta why her response to Trump's joint address did not touch on a laundry list of priorities from various advocacy groups.
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
March 6, 2025 at 1:44 PM
"Pronoun policing" is also an amazing charge to make when the Trump admin is literally policing what trans people call ourselves on our own documents
This, from @edzitron.com's latest newsletter. I've likened legal AI to a very green paralegal you'd have to supervise closely. But the thing is, with a paralegal, you can ask them what their thought process was and why they made the choices they did. You can't do that with AI!
February 18, 2025 at 1:15 PM
This, from @edzitron.com's latest newsletter. I've likened legal AI to a very green paralegal you'd have to supervise closely. But the thing is, with a paralegal, you can ask them what their thought process was and why they made the choices they did. You can't do that with AI!
Reposted by Jill Smith
People who are telling you that there's a lot of fraud in Medicaid are lying to you in order to try to convince you to support taking healthcare away from children on dialysis.
Because the only way to convince enough normal people to harm disabled children is by lying.
Because the only way to convince enough normal people to harm disabled children is by lying.
February 12, 2025 at 1:44 AM
People who are telling you that there's a lot of fraud in Medicaid are lying to you in order to try to convince you to support taking healthcare away from children on dialysis.
Because the only way to convince enough normal people to harm disabled children is by lying.
Because the only way to convince enough normal people to harm disabled children is by lying.
@edzitron.com's newsletter today, describing the American AI industry:
"a kind of capitalist death cult that ran on plagiarism and hubris"
"a kind of capitalist death cult that ran on plagiarism and hubris"
a woman sitting in front of a window with blinds on
Alt: Pam from The Office saying "Yup"
media.tenor.com
January 29, 2025 at 5:51 PM
@edzitron.com's newsletter today, describing the American AI industry:
"a kind of capitalist death cult that ran on plagiarism and hubris"
"a kind of capitalist death cult that ran on plagiarism and hubris"
Reposted by Jill Smith
Gosh, sounds like fair use to me. It's not like OpenAI / Microsoft cared one bit about licenses or copyright when they absorbed my entire legal blog into their LLMs via Common Crawl. Why should their probabilistic LLM outputs get better copyright protection than my original human work?
Microsoft Probing If DeepSeek-Linked Group Improperly Obtained OpenAI Data
Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI are investigating whether data output from OpenAI’s technology was obtained in an unauthorized manner by a group linked to Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek, ...
www.bloomberg.com
January 29, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Gosh, sounds like fair use to me. It's not like OpenAI / Microsoft cared one bit about licenses or copyright when they absorbed my entire legal blog into their LLMs via Common Crawl. Why should their probabilistic LLM outputs get better copyright protection than my original human work?
Was asked to be on an AI webinar panel today.
Was honestly hard to write my email declining it because I kept having to not go on rants.
Hm. Maybe I've found the actual use case for LLMs: write an email* declining this because I hate it but don't make me sound like a crank.
*I am SO kidding.
Was honestly hard to write my email declining it because I kept having to not go on rants.
Hm. Maybe I've found the actual use case for LLMs: write an email* declining this because I hate it but don't make me sound like a crank.
*I am SO kidding.
January 16, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Was asked to be on an AI webinar panel today.
Was honestly hard to write my email declining it because I kept having to not go on rants.
Hm. Maybe I've found the actual use case for LLMs: write an email* declining this because I hate it but don't make me sound like a crank.
*I am SO kidding.
Was honestly hard to write my email declining it because I kept having to not go on rants.
Hm. Maybe I've found the actual use case for LLMs: write an email* declining this because I hate it but don't make me sound like a crank.
*I am SO kidding.
Reposted by Jill Smith
STOP. ASKING. CHATGPT THINGS. TO OWN IT.
We all know it's bad and it can't count the number of Rs in strawberry. Quit boiling the planet with your fucking dunks
We all know it's bad and it can't count the number of Rs in strawberry. Quit boiling the planet with your fucking dunks
January 12, 2025 at 11:30 PM
STOP. ASKING. CHATGPT THINGS. TO OWN IT.
We all know it's bad and it can't count the number of Rs in strawberry. Quit boiling the planet with your fucking dunks
We all know it's bad and it can't count the number of Rs in strawberry. Quit boiling the planet with your fucking dunks
The most ridiculous, gleeful smile spread across my face as I read this this morning. Just a beautiful evisceration of "Reddit Lawyering." The piece de resistance will follow in the next post, but the full thread is wonderful.
bsky.app/profile/gari...
bsky.app/profile/gari...
So... Remember that guy who took Newport Council to court for £600m because he accidentally threw out the hard drive with his bitcoin private key on it?
Judge just summarily dismissed his case.
And even if you're not a lawyer, the judgement is a pretty fun read... /1
Judge just summarily dismissed his case.
And even if you're not a lawyer, the judgement is a pretty fun read... /1
January 10, 2025 at 1:49 PM
The most ridiculous, gleeful smile spread across my face as I read this this morning. Just a beautiful evisceration of "Reddit Lawyering." The piece de resistance will follow in the next post, but the full thread is wonderful.
bsky.app/profile/gari...
bsky.app/profile/gari...
Reposted by Jill Smith
I sat in on a demo of an AI product yesterday and it was so deeply depressing. "How are you going to use this with your 1Ls?" they ask.
My immediate, flippant answer would have been "I won't."
My longer answer has to do with the point below.
My immediate, flippant answer would have been "I won't."
My longer answer has to do with the point below.
This is what's so baffling about so many suggestions for AI in the humanities classroom: they mistake the product for the point. Writing outlines and essays is important not because you need to make outlines and essays but because that's how you learn to think with/through complex ideas.
I'm sure many have said this before but I'm reading a student-facing document about how students might use AI in the classroom (if allowed) and one of the recs is: use AI to make an outline of your reading! But ISN'T MAKING THE OUTLINE how one actually learns?
December 19, 2024 at 2:54 PM
I sat in on a demo of an AI product yesterday and it was so deeply depressing. "How are you going to use this with your 1Ls?" they ask.
My immediate, flippant answer would have been "I won't."
My longer answer has to do with the point below.
My immediate, flippant answer would have been "I won't."
My longer answer has to do with the point below.
Reposted by Jill Smith
just blurted out in class "yes, you have to cite where you got your info. in a world in which lying loudly is the only thing that seems to get rewarded, citing your sources is an act of resistance" and folks, I really believe that.
December 19, 2024 at 3:35 PM
just blurted out in class "yes, you have to cite where you got your info. in a world in which lying loudly is the only thing that seems to get rewarded, citing your sources is an act of resistance" and folks, I really believe that.
Reposted by Jill Smith
Me in 2004, teaching 10th graders: For the love of god don't cite Wikipedia, it's not a reliable source
Me in 2024, to literally anyone in earshot: Good ol' Wikipedia, the only thing the internet hasn't fucked up yet
Me in 2024, to literally anyone in earshot: Good ol' Wikipedia, the only thing the internet hasn't fucked up yet
December 19, 2024 at 3:29 AM
Me in 2004, teaching 10th graders: For the love of god don't cite Wikipedia, it's not a reliable source
Me in 2024, to literally anyone in earshot: Good ol' Wikipedia, the only thing the internet hasn't fucked up yet
Me in 2024, to literally anyone in earshot: Good ol' Wikipedia, the only thing the internet hasn't fucked up yet