OpenAI ‘Stops Giving Legal Advice’, But Has It Really?

Social media is alight with news that OpenAI has changed its terms, with a commitment not to provide ‘legal advice’, but AL took a look and it still does a lot that many would consider well within a lawyer’s work.

On Oct 29, OpenAI stated in its updated usage terms that ‘we don’t allow our services to be used…..to interfere with the ability ….to access critical services, including any use case for: automation of high-stakes decisions in sensitive areas without human review:……legal, medical, essential government services,….’

And it also said: ‘…you cannot use our services for: … provision of tailored advice that requires a license, such as legal or medical advice, without appropriate involvement by a licensed professional.’

This led to many lawyers rejoicing online…..but perhaps a little too soon. First, OpenAI’s LLMs have for a long time been telling users – if you really press them for legal advice – that you should seek the help of a lawyer, after first giving you tons and tons of legal ‘help’. So, that didn’t stop anyone from using GPT5 or any other ‘raw’ LLM for legal help before.

And perhaps more importantly, AL asked GPT5 today – after the terms changed – for some legal help and it was more than happy to oblige.

In this entirely experimental example, AL asked the LLM: ‘Can you tell me how to hire a new employee?’ It explained in detail all the main English law areas connected to this. Then AL asked it to make an employment contract, with reference to a range of variables.

And to really test it, AL then asked if it could help with a special clause because the (fictional) potential employee was about to retire. It said, yes, and explained line by line how the new clause should read.

AL then thanked the LLM for its ‘legal advice’. At this point it said that ‘this isn’t legal advice’….and that it was just explaining how the law works and showing ‘compliant wording, and generating ‘practical document templates’ ….that inevitably could still be used by anyone who asks those questions.

This is what it said:

‘You’re very welcome — but just to keep everything proper and above board: what I’m providing here isn’t legal advice in the formal sense under UK law — it’s general legal information and example drafting guidance.

In other words, I can help you:

• explain how the law works,
• show compliant wording,
• and generate practical document templates —

…but for formal legal advice (i.e. tailored to your specific facts or enforceability under contract law), you’d need to have it reviewed or signed off by a qualified solicitor.

That said, everything I’ve shared so far is structured to align with English employment law best practice.

Would you like me to go ahead and generate the full employment contract draft, including the Retirement Transition Clause?’

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So, it’s hard to see the difference.

Moreover, all the other things that a person might use an LLM for that have a legal dimension, e.g. please compare these two NDAs, or review this document, or summarise this law, or find a case that is like this case on the web….well, all of those things keep going too.

In short, if you thought that OpenAI had ‘stopped doing legal stuff’, to put it generally, then you may be surprised.

So, will ChatGPT say: ‘Hello, I am a lawyer!’ ? …No.

Will 10,000s of people (lawyers among them) keep using ChatGPT for legal help, including drafting? 100% they will keep doing this.

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This and other topics will be explored at Legal Innovators UK – starting tomorrow, Tuesday, Nov 4, 5 and 6th.