Academics are especially susceptible to flattery, working, as we do, in such a hierarchical and status-obsessed profession. It’s no surprise then, really, that we’re prime candidates for AI blethers and its confidence men. All of that smooth language about efficiency and savings in grunt work and tedious tasks carries, just out of sight and not quite within reach, the promise that you’re too good for all of that. Tempting! But, of course, all of that is how we learn. And, often, what we learn too.

“The whole point is to do things the hard way, because that’s how you learn”, William Hubbard, of U of Chicago’s Law School, tells the FT’s Patti Waldmeir. I like the American sincerity of what he says next (and I believe him): “There are core aspects of the practice of law that are not about what’s in the books but what is in the human heart and soul. There is something very human about the lawyer’s job, someone is in a bad place and they know they have someone in their corner fighting for them.”