Autor's RCT: AI Boosts Patent Drafting Quality, But Junior Lawyers' Gains Bifurcate
danielrock · x · 2026-09-24
A pre-registered 3-month RCT by David Autor's team gave 133 patent lawyers at 11 IP firms an AI drafting assistant. AI use raised benchmark drafting quality by 0.34–0.38 SD, with larger gains for juniors. But on a no-AI redlining task, only senior lawyers retained an advantage (0.45 SD); juniors' scores bifurcated into more poor and more good. Foundational expertise may be a prerequisite for extracting durable skill from AI-assisted practice.
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