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One of the best “thinking tools,” Academia and the federal government utilizes is “terms of reference” sheet, that explains how phrases, words and other important distinctions are defined for the purposes of the document.
Why is this important? Because believe it or not, every company, every federal agency, and many people have their own lawyers (General Counsel’s) interpret, re-interpret and privately interpret important documents.
This little-known fact has a disproportionate “silent” impact on our nation and our world. In fact, you may think that in organizations as large as the federal government, that it is the political appointees who make the most important decisions – along with our elected leaders.
You would be only half correct. All administrations, regardless of political party are bound by the law. So, it is actually the federal legal offices and White House OLC (office of legal counsel) that often determine what a statute, law or Supreme Court Case decision “means” when the rubber hits the road.
Let me use an innocuous example. Let’s say the State of Virginia has tagged John Doe as a “reckless and dangerous driver.” John Doe has “multiple moving violations” and should be arrested.
So, his employer – also in Virginia, looks into it. It turns out John Doe does have multiple tickets, and citations. And all of them are for going less than five miles above the posted “speed limit” on 395. A highway where travelers are actively pulled over for going “too slow,” if they go less than five miles below the posted speed limit, because it interferes with the flow of traffic. That legal team may determine that for the purposes of John Doe’s employment, he was not ‘driving recklessly’ when he received the citations. Rather, he was driving with the flow of traffic, and Virginia’s automated flagging system did not have a “human in the loop” to consider or weigh these details when marking him for arrest.
These sort of “minor details” can have massive, unexpected, second and third order effects. While the U.S. does not have the “social capital” ranking and rating system communist China has, where citizens can lose financial credit for J-walking, the increasing automation of law enforcement and expansion of AI tools into public safety risks marking average, law abiding citizens as threats to national security or state law.
In the above example, the space/authority for the company’s attorney to dig into Virginia’s characterization of John Doe, will likely lead to a better outcome. The attorney can let the company know, exactly what happened and exactly what automated Virginia system carelessly grouped John into a category that often includes drunk or intoxicated drivers.
This is just one example of why precise definitions, and specific words matter so much more than they first appear to.
In a world consumed with LLMs, it is increasingly important that we humans stay at the driving wheel of crucial decisions. Automated labelling may be a “cool” AI/LLM tool, but it short-circuits human reasoning, and labels American citizens incorrectly.
Context is King, after all, and only living, breathing humans can provide it.