What does open source AI really mean, why does it matter, and what should legal and business leaders be thinking about as the landscape continues to evolve?

In this episode of AI Sidebar, Irene Liu talks with Heather Meeker, an internationally recognized open source software licensing expert, partner at TechLaw Partners, co-founder of Chinstrap Community, and author of Open Source for Business. Meeker explains why open source AI is harder to define than open source software, how open weights differ from truly open models, and why that distinction matters for lawyers advising companies on how these tools can be used. Irene and Heather also explore what legal and business leaders should know as open weight models enter organizations, from licensing and governance to security, transparency, and public trust.

Learn more about the Stanford Law School AI Initiative

Irene Liu, Executive Director of the Stanford Law School AI Initiative

Connect with Heather Meeker

Pre Order your copy of Open Source for Babies

Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction

(00:01:14) What Does Open Source AI Mean?

(00:05:52) Open Source vs. Open Weights

(00:07:38) Why Open Source AI Is Having Its Moment

(00:09:44) Are Any AI Models Truly Open Source?

(00:10:25) Chinese Models and the Competitive Landscape

(00:11:49) Governing Open Weights in Organizations

(00:14:08) Compliance Tools and Shadow AI

(00:15:25) How Legal Teams Can Help, Not Block

(00:17:06) Security and Governance for Chinese Models

(00:19:00) Why Legal and IT Need to Work Together

(00:20:24) Sharing AI Best Practices

(00:21:21) The Open Weights Policy Debate

(00:23:15) Are Open Models Riskier?

(00:25:14) Transparency, Safety, and Linus’s Law

(00:27:27) The Regulatory Landscape

(00:30:35) Open Source for Babies

(00:33:11) How Lawyers Can Keep Up

(00:37:21) Conclusion

**********************

Share AI Sidebar with your favorite lawyer friend — or anyone trying to keep up with where AI and law are headed.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What does it take to build a good AI-native law firm when the goal is not just efficiency, but giving lawyers more leverage, more agency, and more space for the human judgement at the heart of legal work?

In this episode of AI Sidebar, Irene Liu talks with Ryan Daniels, co-founder and CEO of Crosby AI and a Stanford Law School alum, about what he’s learned building an AI-native law firm focused on commercial contracts. Daniels explains what “AI-native” means in practice, how Crosby differs from both a traditional law firm and a legal tech company, and why it remains, at its core, a law firm. Irene and Ryan also explore how AI can take on repetitive legal work, reshape the law firm business model, and make this an especially exciting time for lawyers who want to innovate.

Learn more about the Stanford Law School AI Initiative

Irene Liu, Executive Director of the Stanford Law School AI Initiative

Connect with Ryan Daniels

Learn more about Crosby

Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction

(00:00:53) What Is an AI-Native Law Firm?

(00:02:39) Why Build a Law Firm Instead of Legal Tech?

(00:03:33) Why Commercial Contracts?

(00:04:54) Pricing by Deal, Not by Hour

(00:06:34) Measuring Human Review Time

(00:07:46) Designing AI Around Lawyers

(00:10:44) Keeping Lawyers in Control

(00:12:22) Building Empathy Between Engineers and Lawyers

(00:14:53) Lawyers, Engineers, and the Identity of an AI-Native Firm

(00:16:31) Finding Lawyers for a New Model

(00:18:15) Why Great Lawyers May Become More Valuable

(00:19:50) Why Clients Try Crosby

(00:20:53) The Future of AI-Native Law Firms

(00:21:37) Defining Quality in Legal AI

(00:22:30) Why This Is an Exciting Time to Build

(00:23:18) Advice for Lawyers and Law Students

(00:25:05) Conclusion

**********************

Share AI Sidebar with your favorite lawyer friend — or anyone trying to keep up with where AI and law are headed.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For product lawyers, the agentic era is changing more than the tools; it is changing how products are built, how risks surface, and how legal advice reaches the business. And who better to explore that shift than the creator of Claude for Legal and associate general counsel at Anthropic, Mark Pike.

Drawing on his experience at Slack and Anthropic, Pike offers a firsthand look at what product counseling requires when legal teams are advising not just on AI, but alongside it. Irene and Mark explore how lawyers can build trust with product and engineering teams, why technical curiosity matters, and how tools like Claude for Legal are reshaping the way legal guidance is created, delivered, and scaled. The conversation also points to a broader question for the profession: whether AI will reduce legal work or expand the universe of legal questions that teams are able to see and address.

Learn more about the Stanford Law School AI Initiative

Irene Liu, Executive Director of the Stanford Law School AI Initiative

Connect with Mark Pike

Explore Claude for Legal on GitHub

Watch Mark's Presentation at Stanford

Chapters:

(00:00:00) Introduction

(00:01:15) How Product Counseling Has Changed

(00:03:17) From Pat Signals to AI Agents

(00:04:38) Product Counseling in the Agentic Era

(00:06:41) The Product Lawyer as Miniature GC

(00:08:09) Getting Closer to the Work

(00:09:39) What Happens When Everyone Is a Builder?

(00:12:51) Guardrails, Automation, and Human Judgment

(00:15:13) Training Product Teams With Better Tools

(00:16:38) Making Legal Training Memorable

(00:19:05) Knowing When to Call in Experts

(00:20:42) Using AI to Understand New Legal Issues

(00:22:23) Working With Outside Counsel in the AI Era

(00:23:27) Technical Fluency for Product Lawyers

(00:25:13) Learning by Building

(00:29:16) Managing AI Agents

(00:31:53) Will AI Create More Legal Work?

(00:33:43) What Comes Next for Claude for Legal

(00:35:06) Conclusion

**********************

Share AI Sidebar with your favorite lawyer friend — or anyone trying to keep up with where AI and law are headed.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.