Beyond Hallucination: Semantic Laundering, Semantic Stewardship, and Prompting Aikido in Human-AI Collaboration
Abstract:
The primary conversation surrounding generative artificial intelligence centers on factual fabrication: hallucination. While hallucination matters, it represents a crude and easily detected failure mode. This paper identifies a second, quieter epistemic risk: semantic laundering. Large language models produce exceptionally fluent, coherent, and
A lot of the most interesting work in legal tech seemed to be coming from people who were newer to the field, earlier in their careers, or just not as widely known yet as
We’ve spent the last couple of years treating generative AI like a vending machine. Select a task. Insert a prompt. Retrieve a product. And to be fair, in many legal and professional contexts that’s exactly the right frame: accuracy and precision matter and “creative” output in payroll or billing codes is usually just a polished
For more than two years, lawyers have been told that success with generative AI depended on writing better prompts and a search for the perfect “magic wand” prompting formula. That was the wrong lesson. The real change in 2026 is not found in the model itself, but in the professional posture required to use it.
I spent the month of November doing what I called an “AI Sprint,” in which I experimented with a lot of new approaches and tried generating new types of outputs. I haven’t shared much of that yet, but I thought this exploration of what “AI in the Middle” might mean in law and law practice
About a year-and-a-half ago, Tom Mighell and I decided to start an interview series on our podcast, The Kennedy-Mighell Report. We called it “Fresh Voices on Legal Tech” because we wanted to highlight both a new generation of legal tech and new perspectives and approaches on legal tech. We thought “fresh voices” covered what
My friends and colleagues have been referring to me as an “idea therapist.” I hear this when they mention an idea or innovation project and I help them reshape it into something for which they can see a much clearer path than before. They describe what I do as idea therapy and think it is
By Dennis Kennedy
September 10
I’ve decided that I want as many people as possible to read my book, Successful Innovation Outcomes in Law: A Practical Guide for Law Firms, Law Departments and Other Legal Organizations, so I’m now making it available as a FREE PDF download – Successful Innovation Outcomes in Law – 2023 PDF Version. If
Lawyers are trained to think in ways that can be the opposite of good innovation practices. We spot issues and potential problems, with an emphasis on problems. We identify and manage risks, with an emphasis on the risks of doing new things. We focus, sometimes agonizingly, on process, procedure, and precedent. Saying that something “has
