So, you know the whole California Bar Exam thing? Well, it sounds like it was a hot mess. The State Bar of California just admitted that they used AI to develop some multiple-choice questions. Why? Not really sure why this matters, but it’s causing a lot of outrage.
The State Bar is asking the California Supreme Court to adjust test scores for those who took the February bar exam. But they’re not admitting that there were big problems with the questions. Some questions were recycled from a first-year law student exam, while others were made with AI. That’s wild, right? The State Bar’s independent psychometrician, ACS Ventures, used AI to help with the questions.
Mary Basick from UC Irvine Law School is shook. She’s like, “They can’t be serious. Having non-lawyers and AI write the questions is insane.” After taking the exam, Basick said some questions felt like they were AI-written. She used to have the bar’s back, but now she’s not so sure.
Katie Moran from the University of San Francisco School of Law agrees. She thinks it’s a conflict of interest because the same company that made the questions also approved them. That’s sketchy, right? The State Bar is like, “We’re confident the questions are totally legit.” But are they though?
The State Bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners chair, Alex Chan, is defending the questions. He says only a small part of them used AI. But people are still skeptical. It sounds like the State Bar is trying to save money by using AI, but it’s backfiring big time. They’re not owning up to the flaws in the questions.
Moran and Basick are calling out the State Bar for being shady. They want all the questions from the exam released to the public. They think the State Bar should go back to using the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ questions. But the State Bar is like, “Nope, we’re sticking with this new system.”
The Committee of Bar Examiners will meet soon to talk about fixing things. But Chan doesn’t think they’ll go back to the old questions. Remote testing is a big deal now, so they might stick with the new system. Sounds like they’re in too deep to turn back now.
