219 | 😫 🕳️ AI's pain cave and why you want in!

In today’s Brainyacts:

1. AI’s Pain Cave: You better find it!

2. An AI Demogorgan, I mean robot

3. OpenAI, the next Theranos? and other AI model news

4. Tracking deepfakes in elections legislation and more news you can use

   👋 to all subscribers!

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Lead Memo

😫 🕳️ AI’s Pain Cave: A Reality Check for Legal

Are your AI efforts puffing up the bubble or putting you in the pain cave?

Do yourself a favor: read this short essay, then watch or listen to (or read) Dr. Alex Karp’s (CEO of Palantir) comments during their recent Q2 earnings call. Why? To stress-test what your business or teams are doing right now on the AI front. If you cannot honestly say that you are in the pain cave, then, well, you are in the bubble. And that is not good.

The hype around AI in the legal market is both exhilarating and exhausting. We hear proclamations of an AI bubble in the broader market, but this binary narrative is a distraction. While there may be a bubble in financial markets, with AI-driven companies receiving sky-high valuations, this is only tangentially related to the ground realities of the legal profession. What truly matters is the day-to-day, shop-floor impact of AI on legal practices—and right now, the true pioneers are squarely in the AI pain cave. Everyone else in legal is blowing bubbles!

The "pain cave" is a concept I’m familiar with through my ultramarathon running. It’s the point in a race where physical exhaustion meets mental resistance, and pushing through feels like clawing your way out of a dark, cold cave. It's a place of immense struggle where mental toughness is key. This metaphor is apt for where we find ourselves with AI in the legal sector.

Legal professionals are in the early, grueling stages of AI transformation. Too many are excitedly donning the latest tech gear, entering the race with high hopes. But excitement and ambition alone won't get us through the pain cave. Just as in ultramarathons, enduring the initial hardships and mental battles is crucial. And you cannot avoid them.

The transition from AI prototypes to production is where the real challenge lies. It's easy to build an AI prototype—akin to whipping up a fancy PowerPoint presentation. But moving from a flashy demo to a functional, integrated AI solution in a legal practice is exponentially harder. This process is fraught with obstacles and unknowns.

As Palantir is demonstrating, without the right infrastructure, large language models and other AI tools risk remaining as empty promises—shiny objects that look impressive but fail to deliver real value. They might even become counterproductive, like what we saw in the recent Upwork report that found 77% of workers say AI tools have actually decreased their productivity and added to their workload. But wait, that’s not what the PowerPoints from our CIO, Chief Innovation Officer, Head of AI, or our AI-vendor “expert” are telling us. Right. Want to know why? Because they simply do not know that they need to do more than “adopt AI” (a useless phrase)—they need to embed it into the core operations of legal practices. And few know how to actually do it. And they will waste your time and money voiding the real work.

The true potential of AI lies in making legal enterprises faster, more efficient, and more insightful. It’s about transforming what Dr. Karp calls “tribal knowledge” (a flavor of legal’s knowledge management) into a strategic asset, making every member of the firm more capable and valuable. Done right, AI will be a powerful tool, enhancing what legal professionals do best and setting firms apart from their competitors.

However, this transformation requires a willingness to embrace the pain cave. It demands persistence, mental fortitude, and a commitment to push through the initial discomfort. Those who persevere will emerge stronger, more capable, and better equipped to leverage AI’s full potential.

In the end, the journey through the AI pain cave is not just about adopting new technology. It's about a fundamental shift in mindset and practice, embracing the struggle as part of the process. Only then can the legal profession truly harness the transformative power of AI.

Jumping back to Palantir’s earnings call, they highlighted how their clients begin with small pilots but quickly realize that Palantir can take them from pilot to factory floor production. This is why their clients are spending more with them year-over-year. For instance, “One of America's leading hospitals began working with us in 2021, generated approximately $1.5 million of revenue in 2022, over $4 million of revenue in 2023, and is on track to generate nearly $15 million of revenue this year.”

So if you are in the bubble and not in the pain cave, what can you do? Stop focusing on what might be and dig into the unsexy reality of what is. Realize you likely lack the talent and infrastructure to truly make AI a reality. Get sober. Figure out your gaps.

Or get out of the way. There is no room for you in the pain cave.

Spotlight

👾🧌 Is Brett Inventing the AI Demogorgen?

Last week I teased about the new AI robot Figure 02 being released today. Well, it is here. And it is remarkable. But what is with all the Stranger Things similarities? Or is it just me? We’ll get to that.

First, who is Brett? You need to add him to the list of Sam, Elon, Satya, and other AI leaders.

Brett Adcock is a successful entrepreneur known for founding Vettery, a machine-learning job-matching platform acquired by The Adecco Group in 2018, and Archer Aviation, a company developing electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for urban air mobility.

In 2022, he founded Figure AI, aiming to create general-purpose humanoid robots to address labor shortages and enhance productivity across various industries. Adcock's ventures showcase his ability to leverage technology to solve real-world problems and drive innovation.

Ok, now back to Stranger Things and then the big reveal. If you are a fan, you remember this Demogorgan version in the first two seasons. It had a head with no eyes and a distinctly sharper shape. Also, remember the opening title music and sounds throughout the show. If you are not a fan, here is a Demogorgan:

Alright, I am having a bit of fun. Now it is time to watch the trailer for Figure 02. Here are some specs:

F.02 was a ground-up redesign to achieve: - 6x Cameras - 50%+ Battery - Onboard VLM - 3x CPU / GPU - 4th Gen Hands - Integrated wiring - Exoskeleton structure - Speech-to-speech reasoning 

Perhaps most compelling (frightening) is that these are 100% fully autonomous with full self-correcting behavior.

AI Model Notables

► Bad week for OpenAI. You know it’s bad when people write this 👇👇

► Elon Musk sues OpenAI again, alleging ‘deceit of Shakespearean proportions’. Click here for the Complaint.

• Musk claims OpenAI breached its "founding agreement" to develop AI for humanity's benefit and that it is self-enriching.

• This complaint alleges violations of federal racketeering laws and "numerous acts of wire fraud."

• Of course, OpenAI denies the allegations, referring to previous statements that Musk supported the for-profit transition. 

Recall, that Musk dropped a similar case a few months ago.

► OpenAI tempers expectations with less bombastic, GPT-5-less DevDay this fall.

► More downer OpenAI news, its leaders continue to leave:

• Plus, Peter Deng, a product leader who joined last year from Meta, has reportedly also departed.

► One more piece on OpenAI: The Wall Street Journal ran an exclusive stating that OpenAI has built a text watermarking method to detect ChatGPT-written content but is not releasing it as it would alienate or expose its users.

► Leaked documents show Nvidia scraping ‘a human lifetime’ of videos per day to train AI.

► Meta courts celebs like Awkwafina and Judi Dench to voice AI assistants ahead of Meta Connect.

News You Can Use:

➭ Five US states push Musk to fix AI chatbot over election misinformation - Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington, Michigan and New Mexico

➭ Deepfake in elections state legislation tracker.

➭ AI tool can draft responses to patients’ EHR queries as accurately as their human healthcare professionals, and with greater perceived “empathy.”

➭ Britain cancels $1.7 billion of computing projects in setback for global AI ambitions

➭ Fully-automatic robot dentist performs world's first human procedure

Who is the author, Josh Kubicki?

Some of you know me. Others do not. Here is a short intro. I am a lawyer, entrepreneur, and teacher. I have transformed legal practices and built multi-million dollar businesses. Not a theorist, I am an applied researcher and former Chief Strategy Officer, recognized by Fast Company and Bloomberg Law for my unique work. Through this newsletter, I offer you pragmatic insights into leveraging AI to inform and improve your daily life in legal services.