On Monday, the State Bar of California revealed that it used AI to develop a portion of multiple-choice questions on its February 2025 bar examination, inflicting outrage amongst legislation faculty college and take a look at takers. The admission comes after weeks of complaints about technical issues and irregularities through the examination administration, stories the Los Angeles Occasions.
The State Bar disclosed that its psychometrician (an individual or group expert in administrating psychological checks), ACS Ventures, created 23 of the 171 scored multiple-choice questions with AI help. One other 48 questions got here from a first-year legislation scholar examination, whereas Kaplan Examination Companies developed the remaining 100 questions.
The State Bar defended its practices, telling the LA Occasions that every one questions underwent evaluate by content material validation panels and subject material specialists earlier than the examination. “The ACS questions had been developed with the help of AI and subsequently reviewed by content material validation panels and a subject professional upfront of the examination,” wrote State Bar Government Director Leah Wilson in a press launch.
Based on the LA Occasions, the revelation has drawn sturdy criticism from a number of authorized training specialists. “The debacle that was the February 2025 bar examination is worse than we imagined,” mentioned Mary Basick, assistant dean of educational expertise on the College of California, Irvine Faculty of Legislation. “I am nearly speechless. Having the questions drafted by non-lawyers utilizing synthetic intelligence is simply unbelievable.”
Katie Moran, an affiliate professor on the College of San Francisco Faculty of Legislation who makes a speciality of bar examination preparation, referred to as it “a staggering admission.” She identified that the identical firm that drafted AI-generated questions additionally evaluated and authorised them to be used on the examination.
State bar defends AI-assisted questions amid criticism
Alex Chan, chair of the State Bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners, famous that the California Supreme Court docket had urged the State Bar to discover “new applied sciences, reminiscent of synthetic intelligence” to enhance testing reliability and cost-effectiveness.
