{
  "id": 7243645,
  "title": "Does AI assistance enhance or erode expertise?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/14/does-ai-assistance-enhance-or-erode-expertise",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-14T04:14:34.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Marginal Revolution",
    "slug": "marginal-revolution",
    "url": "https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2026/09/does-ai-assistance-enhance-or-erode-expertise.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) examines whether using AI assistance improves or diminishes professional expertise among patent lawyers. In a randomized controlled trial, 133 experienced patent lawyers at 11 U.S. intellectual property law firms were given access to a custom AI drafting assistant for three months. Their performance on AI-assisted tasks and their professional judgment afterward were measured by blinded expert patent attorneys. The findings reveal that AI access improved the quality of work produced on benchmark patent drafting tasks after 10 and 90 days, with greater gains observed among junior lawyers. However, after three months, all subjects were given the task of reviewing an existing patent application without AI, a core skill in patent practice. The lawyers who received AI assistance outperformed the control group, with the advantage primarily benefiting senior lawyers. Junior lawyers did not experience an overall improvement; instead, their scores became more uneven, with fewer mediocre scores replaced by an equal number of poor and good results. The authors conclude that foundational expertise may be necessary to fully benefit from AI-assisted practice. While RCTs have limitations, they suggest that over time, human tasks may shift, resulting in increased productivity for individuals.",
  "summary": "From a new NBER working paper: Whether AI assistance builds or erodes professional expertise is unsettled. In a pre-registered three-month randomized controlled trial, we gave 133 practicing patent lawyers at eleven U.S. intellectual property law firms access to a custom AI drafting assistant and measured both their performance while using AI and their professional judgment […] The post Does AI…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}