Artificial Intelligence Usage Recommendations

The Hawai‘i Supreme Court Law Library is committed to using artificial intelligence (AI) in an ethical, responsible, and trusted manner.  These recommendations come from the perspective that AI tools should augment and support humans, not replace human judgement, and establishes guidelines for users to follow when developing, using, or interacting with AI systems and capabilities.

Definitions

“Generative AI” refers to artificial intelligence technologies that can create original content such as text, images, code, etc. in response to prompts, i.e. commercial large language models and specific AI tools that leverage large language models for legal research and support.

Acceptable Use

We suggest using generative AI tools for legitimate work purposes such as legal research, writing, analysis, and ideation under the following conditions:

  • AI is used as an assistive technology to enhance human capabilities, not replace human judgment.
  • Outputs from AI systems must be carefully reviewed and should not be blindly relied upon.
  • Use of AI tools shall comply with your workplace best practices regarding data privacy, cybersecurity, etc.

Prohibited Use

We suggest the following uses of generative AI to be strictly prohibited:

  • Illegal or any activities prohibited by your workplaces, such as the Judiciary’s Statewide Policy Committee (SPAC) policies, i.e. SPAC no. 11 related to Guidelines on Employee Behavior, etc.
  • Inputting personal, confidential, proprietary data or information without authorization.
  • Using AI to make binding decisions that impact employment, benefits, etc.

Disclosure & Transparency

When AI-generated content is incorporated into any deliverable, employees clearly disclose this usage, such as via disclaimer.

Review

These recommendations will evolve as AI technologies develop. AI products currently under these recommendations include the Hawai‘i Supreme Court Law Library subscriptions to Paxton.ai, Bloomberg Law, and others TBA.  Other generative AI commercial tools include Microsoft’s Bing chat/Co-pilot, Google Gemini, Claude.ai, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Canva.

Users and Judiciary coworkers are encouraged to consult AI usage best practices and attend Hawai‘i Supreme Court Law Library AI trainings. Two trainings are available here.

 

For questions or concerns please contact the law library at lawlibrary@courts.hawaii.gov.

Note: Drafted with the assistance of Claude.ai.

Last updated: March 10, 2025