17 Seconds #104. Useful Info Quickly.
On 2023-01-15, Paul English (KAYAK founder, entrepreneur, activist) posted the following on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/englishpaulm_cnet-is-quietly-publishing-entire-articles-activity-7020450079886995456-FQAc):
“2023 is the year of AI. Do not resist, else you will be left behind. Learn how to use these evolving tools to improve your output. If today’s tools are not perfect for you yet, they will get much better in the weeks and months ahead.”
ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com/chat), created by OpenAI, is currently perhaps the most popular artificial intelligence chatbot. OpenAI is based in San Francisco and has about 450 FTEs (https://www.linkedin.com/company/openai/). ChatGPT can answer questions, write essays, and more. Wikipedia describes ChatGPT as follows (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChatGPT):
“ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a chatbot launched by OpenAI in November 2022. It is built on top of OpenAI’s GPT-3 family of large language models, and is fine-tuned (an approach to transfer learning) with both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. ChatGPT was launched as a prototype on November 30, 2022, and quickly garnered attention for its detailed responses and articulate answers across many domains of knowledge. Its uneven factual accuracy was identified as a significant drawback. Following the release of ChatGPT, OpenAI was reportedly valued at $29 billion.”
On 2023-01-14, I decided to ask ChatGPT the following question: “What is Clocktower Law known for?” Here is ChatGPT’s answer:
“Clocktower Law is a small law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts that specializes in intellectual property law, specifically in the areas of patents, trademarks, and copyrights. They have a particular focus on helping startups and small businesses protect and monetize their intellectual property.
Clocktower Law is known for its expertise in a variety of technical fields such as software, medical devices, biotech, mechanical, and electrical engineering. They have a team of attorneys with technical backgrounds and experience in various industries that help them understand clients’ technology and provide tailored legal advice.
Additionally, the firm is known for its collaborative approach to working with clients, which helps them understand clients’ business goals and provide strategic legal guidance.”
ChatGPT answered mostly correctly, but I’ve highlighted (in bold above) the least accurate portions of its answer:
- Boston MA vs. Acton MA – Clocktower is based in Acton MA, which is in Greater Boston but not in Boston proper.
- Copyright – All IP attorneys are familiar with copyright law but few actually practice copyright law, and those who do are litigators representing big companies (such as publishers, music labels, and the like). While Clocktower provides overall guidance on copyright law, our specialty is patents and trademarks for startups.
- Monetizing IP – Clocktower doesn’t directly help startups monetize IP. Instead, Clocktower indirectly helps startups monetize their IP by teaching them to use their IP strategically to get acquired. (FWIW, I believe that all value provided by law firms is indirect value, but that’s fodder for another article.) Furthermore, while I believe that all companies are startups (including church startups, nonprofit startups, law firm startups, and “traditional” startups), not all startups are VC-funded and on a five- to eight-year exit trajectory. Those that are, however, can benefit from leaning in to their IP strategy.
- Biotech – As I wrote in last month’s “17 Seconds” newsletter, entitled “* Top 10 Reasons to Switch to Clocktower!” (https://www.clocktowerlaw.com/6303.html), we’re technology generalists. I’m electrical engineering from MIT, Mike is computer science from Harvard. Between the two of us, we’ve studied just about everything except bio and pharma. So it’s easier to say which patents we DON’T do rather than which we do: no bugs, no drugs.
- Team of attorneys – Yes, we have a team of attorneys, but on an FTE basis, Clocktower is five. On a warm bodies in Greater Boston basis, we are three: Erik Heels (managing partner, founder, attorney), Mike Bartley (partner, attorney), and Mary Keele (office manager, paralegal). The remaining two FTEs are broken up into many small 1099 pieces worldwide, including many listed on our “Friends of the Firms” page (https://www.clocktowerlaw.com/friends).
In summary, ChatGPT got many things correct about Clocktower but missed the mark on important details.
What one question will you ask ChatGPT today?
And how will you leverage artificial intelligence to improve your output in 2023, AKA the year of AI?
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