On Monday, the State Bar of California revealed that it used AI to develop a portion of multiple-choice questions on its February 2025 bar examination, inflicting outrage amongst legislation faculty college and check takers. The admission comes after weeks of complaints about technical issues and irregularities through the examination administration, reports the Los Angeles Instances.

The State Bar disclosed that its psychometrician (an individual expert in administrating psychological exams), ACS Ventures, created 23 of the 171 scored multiple-choice questions with AI help. One other 48 questions got here from a first-year legislation scholar examination, whereas Kaplan Examination Providers developed the remaining 100 questions.

The State Bar defended its practices, telling the LA Instances that each one questions underwent overview by content material validation panels and material consultants earlier than the examination. “The ACS questions have been developed with the help of AI and subsequently reviewed by content material validation panels and a subject professional prematurely of the examination,” wrote State Bar Government Director Leah Wilson in a press launch.

In line with the LA Instances, the revelation has drawn robust criticism from a number of authorized schooling consultants. “The debacle that was the February 2025 bar examination is worse than we imagined,” stated Mary Basick, assistant dean of educational expertise on the College of California, Irvine Faculty of Regulation. “I am virtually speechless. Having the questions drafted by non-lawyers utilizing synthetic intelligence is simply unbelievable.”

Katie Moran, an affiliate professor on the College of San Francisco Faculty of Regulation who makes a speciality of bar examination preparation, referred to as it “a staggering admission.” She identified that the identical firm that drafted AI-generated questions additionally evaluated and authorised them to be used on the examination.

State bar defends AI-assisted questions amid criticism

Alex Chan, chair of the State Bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners, famous that the California Supreme Courtroom had urged the State Bar to discover “new applied sciences, similar to synthetic intelligence” to enhance testing reliability and cost-effectiveness.