by LAWPRO

artificial intelligence

We’ve all heard the buzz about generative AI: a clever tool that can draft contracts, summarize long documents, draft replies to emails, and even answer niche questions about practice areas. But with great power comes cautionary tales.

Let me walk you through a curious (and cautionary) experience I had with AI. Spoiler alert: the truth was a little more complicated than the AI’s confident responses suggested!

Prompt 1: Can you give me the timeline for remote signing of wills in Ontario?

Response: The AI eagerly obliged, laying out a neat timeline broken down into 3 parts, (i) pre-pandemic, (ii) temporary changes during Covid-19 pandemic, and (iii) permanent changes postpandemic.

The last part of that timeline was provided as follows,

3. Permanent Changes Post-Pandemic

January 1, 2022:
1) Bill 245 amendments came into force, permanently allowing
remote witnessing of wills and powers of attorney in
Ontario under specific conditions:

• Remote witnessing must still involve audio-visual
technology.
• One of the witnesses must be a lawyer or paralegal.
January 1, 2024:

Ontario introduced legislation allowing electronic wills,
meaning a will no longer needs to exist in physical (paper)
form to be valid, as long as it is created and signed in compliance
with the SLRA.

A great start but hold on. What?!

Prompt #2: Can you give the source for electronic wills?

Response: The AI amended its answer,

As of December 2024, Ontario does not permit electronic wills. While the province allows for remote witnessing of wills through audio-visual communication technology, the will itself must be in a physical, paper format and signed with “wet” signatures.

Wait a minute. Didn’t it just claim that Ontario embraced electronic wills as of January 1, 2024?

Prompt #3: So, this isn’t true?

Response: With a sheepish pivot (or as close as AI can get to sheepishness), the AI admitted,

You are correct to question that statement—it is not true…

It even elaborated on its own confusion,

Why the Confusion? Ontario has implemented significant changes regarding remote witnessing of wills (permanently allowed under certain conditions since January 1, 2022), but electronic wills remain a separate issue. While some provinces, like British Columbia, have embraced electronic wills, Ontario has not yet followed suit.

What went wrong?

The AI did not just make a simple error, like getting a date wrong, it hallucinated. It fabricated information about electronic wills in Ontario, presenting it as a fact. While it eventually corrected itself when pressed, this error could have easily misled someone who lacked the expertise to question it.

Staying grounded in AI use

AI can be a helpful assistant, but to ensure the results are accurate, consider these two essential strategies:

1) Critical analysis:

  • Sources: Verify the origin of the AI-generated information
  • Credibility: Ensure the sources are reliable and up to date
  • Cross-reference: Compare the results against reliable legal databases or trusted resources
  • Context: Consider the content in which the information is presented. Does the information align with your understanding of the topic.

2) Consult mentors and experts

  • Colleagues: Ask peers for their insights when researching or formulating strategies
  • Seek advice: Engage seasoned legal professionals or mentors for their perspectives
  • Second opinion: When in doubt, consider consultinganother expert to avoid chasing a red herring

Lawyers are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the advice they provide. Tools like generative AI can help streamline research or spark ideas, but they should never replace legal analysis and good old-fashioned critical thinking. And if nothing else, this story should serve as a reminder: don’t believe everything an AI tells you — at least, not without double-checking first!

Safiyya Vankalwala is Communications Counsel at LAWPRO