California Bar discloses AI was used to develop some questions in problem-plagued February exam

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The State Bar of California has disclosed that immoderate multiple-choice questions successful a problem-plagued barroom exam were developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence

LOS ANGELES -- The State Bar of California has disclosed that immoderate multiple-choice questions successful a problem-plagued barroom exam were developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence.

The ineligible licensing assemblage said successful a quality merchandise Monday that it volition inquire the California Supreme Court to set trial scores for those who took its February barroom exam.

“The debacle that was the February 2025 barroom exam is worse than we imagined,” Mary Basick, adjunct dean of world skills astatine the University of California, Irvine, Law School, told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m astir speechless. Having the questions drafted by non-lawyers utilizing artificial quality is conscionable unbelievable.”

In February, the caller exam led to complaints aft galore test-takers were incapable to implicit their barroom exams. The online investigating platforms repeatedly crashed earlier immoderate applicants adjacent started. Others struggled to decorativeness and prevention essays, experienced surface lags and mistake messages and could not transcript and paste text, the Times reported earlier.

According to a caller presumption by the State Bar, 100 of the 171 scored multiple-choice questions were made by Kaplan and 48 were drawn from a first-year instrumentality students exam. A smaller subset of 23 scored questions were made by ACS Ventures, the State Bar’s psychometrician, and developed with artificial intelligence.

“We person assurance successful the validity of the (multiple-choice questions) to accurately and reasonably measure the ineligible competence of test-takers,” Leah Wilson, the State Bar’s enforcement director, told the paper successful a statement.

Katie Moran, an subordinate prof astatine the University of San Francisco School of Law who specializes successful barroom exam preparation, told the newspaper, “It’s a staggering admission.”

“The State Bar has admitted they employed a institution to person a non-lawyer usage AI to draught questions that were fixed connected the existent barroom exam,” she said. “They past paid that aforesaid institution to measure and yet o.k. of the questions connected the exam, including the questions the institution authored.”