AI Inclusiveness Challenge

Whether you like it or not, AI is here to stay. Studies show that women and other marginalized groups in the legal profession are adopting AI at lower rates, are being penalized when they disclose that they use AI, and are more skeptical about current AI tools because of their inherent biases. The PLDIC wants the Pittsburgh legal community to be educated about AI so that no one in our profession is left behind and so that a diverse range of legal professionals are qualified to make decisions about AI adoption and implementation.

Utilizing an updated and curated version of the ABA’s Commission on Women’s 21 Days of AI: A Grit and Growth Mindset Challenge, the PLDIC is offering a cohort-based opportunity comprised of three week-long modules that explore AI’s capabilities, roles that AI can fill in your workflow, and case studies for elevating leadership skills.

Program Structure:

  • To participate in the Challenge, please register for the Virtual Kickoff Meeting: Thursday September 24 from 12-1:30 p.m. via Zoom– during this kickoff meeting, we will introduce the Challenge parameters, preview some of the modules, introduce the cohort-leaders and form cohorts, and give each cohort time to meet with their leader in a breakout room. Cohorts will determine their own meeting cadence and structure, but the goal is to have a weekly check-in for the whole cohort and office hours with the cohort-leader for more specific questions. Please sign up by Monday, September 21 so that you can be placed into a cohort prior to the Kickoff.

Register

  • Three Weeks of Cohort Based Learning:
    • Week 1: We will focus on the capabilities of AI tools and essential considerations as you begin your AI journey.
    • Week 2: You will ask your AI tool to adopt different personas to support your workflow.
    • Week 3: Dive deeper into use cases for AI that can level up your leadership.
  • Bonus Deep Dive Session: Agentic Systems – Attend a fireside chat with the cohort facilitators on October 15.
  • In-Person Wrap Meeting and CLE, Thursday October 22 from 4-5:30 p.m. at Babst Calland – the Challenge will culminate in a wrap meeting where cohorts will share their takeaways and we will hear from Gabrielle Kohlmeier, one of the ABA Challenge Co-Chairs, about how to apply the lessons learned during the program in your workplaces. The meeting will be followed by a networking reception.

Participant Expectations:

  • Kickoff Meeting: participants should plan to attend this 90-minute meeting to learn about the program and meet their cohort.
  • Daily Tasks: participants can expect to spend between 5-30 minutes each day working on the AI task of the day.
  • Cohort Meetings: participants should plan to attend three cohort meetings, with the option to attend additional meetings with their individual cohort and office hours with their cohort leader.
  • Wrap Meeting: participants should plan to attend the 90-minute wrap meeting and CLE on Thursday, October 22 from 4-5:30 p.m. at Babst Calland with the option to attend the networking reception that follows.

Dates: September-October 2026

  • Kickoff: Thursday, September 24 from 12-1:30 p.m. via Zoom
  • Challenge: September 24-October 15 (virtual)
  • Wrap Meeting: Thursday, October 22 4-5:30 p.m., followed by networking reception at Babst Calland (CLE credit pending)

Participant Resources:

  • AI Hiring Tools Don’t Just Learn Bias, AI Forms New Biases Of Its Own by Michelle Travis: Growing evidence reveals the risk of AI tools replicating human biases from their training materials based on race, gender, age, disability and other characteristics. AI tools can also fabricate new and factually baseless biases against groups of individuals, according to researchers out of Princeton University and the University of Chicago. Their new study found that AI tools form group-based biases during hiring tasks even when trained on neutral data. What’s worse, the AI tools were more likely to form new biases than humans who performed the same hiring task. And newer AI technology performed worse than older versions.
  • The Hidden Penalty of Using AI at Work by Oguz A. Acar, Phyliss Jia Gai, Yanping Tu and Jiayi Hou: A 2025 study reveals a hidden cost of AI at work: engineers judged identical code far more harshly when they thought AI helped write it. Learn how companies can prevent this hidden “competence penalty” and make AI adoption fair for everyone. Check out this video summary from one of the lead authors.
  • Connecticut judge says plaintiff hid messages for AI in court filings by Sara Merken: A state judge in Connecticut said a plaintiff in a case before him included “hidden text” in court filings meant to serve as instructions to any AI system reviewing the documents. Judge ​Walter Spader, Jr. in Milford in an August 6 sanctions order said the court identified ‌text that was “set in tiny-point type and colored white,” making the words invisible to the human eye but “fully legible to any software that reads the document’s text.”
  • Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick: in this book, Mollick urges us to engage with AI as co-worker, co-teacher, and coach. He assesses its profound impact on business and education, using dozens of real-time examples of AI in action. Co-Intelligence shows what it means to think and work together with smart machines, and why it’s imperative that we master that skill. Mollick challenges us to utilize AI’s enormous power without losing our identity, to learn from it without being misled, and to harness its gifts to create a better human future.
  • Some Kids Will Never Think AI Is Cool by Elana Klein: what does Generation Alpha think about AI?!
  • LTH AI Agents in Legal Map: August 2026: Legal Tech Hub’s AI Agents in Legal map is an interactive snapshot of all the products that have announced the launch of AI agents in the legal industry. You can filter the directory based on the capabilities and solutions you are seeking