The California Bar Exam is under fire AGAIN! Just weeks after hundreds of prospective lawyers reported widespread technical meltdowns and irregularities during the exam, the State Bar of California dropped a BOMBSHELL: some multiple-choice questions were actually developed with the help of ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. The State Bar now says it will ask the California Supreme Court to adjust test scores for those who took the February exam, but stops short of admitting larger problems with the questions themselves.
Adding fuel to the fire, it has come to light that some questions were RECYCLED from a first-year law student exam, while others were crafted with AI by ACS Ventures, the State Bar’s own psychometrician. Legal experts are OUTRAGED. Mary Basick, assistant dean at UC Irvine Law School, blasted the move as “unbelievable,” saying having non-lawyers create questions using AI is a staggering conflict of interest, especially since the same psychometricians are tasked with validating the questions.
Katie Moran, a professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law, echoed the sentiment, stating, “The State Bar has admitted they employed a company to have a non-lawyer use AI to draft questions…They then paid that same company to assess and ultimately approve the questions.” According to the State Bar, Kaplan Exam Services created 100 of the 171 scored multiple-choice questions, 48 came from a first-year law exam, and 23 were developed with AI by ACS Ventures.
While Leah Wilson, the State Bar’s executive director, insists they have “confidence” in the questions, a spokesperson for the California Supreme Court revealed they were only informed this week that AI had been used. Alex Chan, chair of the State Bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners, downplayed the AI usage, saying it was used to “vet” questions, not draft them, and pointed out that the California Supreme Court had previously encouraged exploring AI to improve testing. Last year, facing a $22-million deficit, the State Bar cut costs by moving to a new testing system. That led to widespread complaints of technical issues, typos, and nonsensical questions, even prompting a federal lawsuit. Critics are now calling for the release of all 200 test questions and a return to the multi-state bar exam, arguing that the State Bar has proven unable to create a fair test. The Committee of Bar Examiners will meet on May 5 to discuss remedies, but a return to the old exam is unlikely, as the State Bar says it’s focused on remote testing options.