AI Freezes The Scholarly Voice

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Blackman, J. (2026, August 24). AI Freezes The Scholarly Voice. Reason. https://reason.com/volokh/2026/08/23/ai-freezes-the-scholarly-voice/

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Reason · collected 2026-08-24 · by Josh Blackman

Quick Summary

The author of The Volokh Conspiracy, a blog featuring law professors and contrarian perspectives, recently attended a workshop on AI in academia. He notes that established professors can train AI on their existing body of work, but junior scholars struggle to develop their own voice using AI without prior writings to train it on. The key issue is how the rise of AI will impact the hiring process at law schools and tenure decisions, as younger scholars may rely heavily on AI for writing. The author fears that this could lead to a homogenization of scholarly voices and a shift from creative thinking to relying on "law coding".
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-08-24, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

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Story summary

Josh Blackman, a law professor, recently attended a workshop about how law professors are using AI to generate written content. One professor at the workshop revealed that he has trained an AI model on his past publications to mimic his writing style. The use of AI in academic writing raises concerns about the development of a unique "scholarly voice" among junior professors, as they may not have enough work to train an AI model. Junior scholars struggle with establishing their own voice, and using AI could exacerbate this problem if it relies on existing, established writers' styles. Blackman notes that junior professors who are also tech-savvy might be more likely to use AI in their writing, which could further limit their ability to develop a distinct voice.

Written for “Academic Journal Censorship Row” on 2026-10-16, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

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This article reads leans strongly right and hedges 5% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
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⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 11% hedged 5 of 47 📰 publisher trust 60
“Article A describes a workshop about law professors using AI, while Article B discusses an analysis of guest columns in top publications with some possible AI contributions, indicating different events”
Beware the Ready-Made Op-Ed different event · 80%
The Dispatch
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 4 📰 publisher trust 61
“Article A discusses law professors using AI in a workshop, while Article B describes billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller's use of AI to write an op-ed piece for The Wall Street Journal”
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Claims extracted
21
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
5%
1 of 21 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans strongly right
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
94/100
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Outlets on this story
1
Technology
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-08-24 · how these are computed

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Reason · 43 article(s) · 0 correction(s) detected
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Who wrote this

Josh Blackman
69 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
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Also by Josh Blackman
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
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The Volokh PERSON · 1×

Narrative

Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent I recently attended a workshop about how law professor are using AI.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-08-24
🔮 Thus, any text generated by the AI will be in the same sort of style that the professor has--or perhaps had.
2026-08-24 · Reason
AI Freezes The Scholarly Voice · assertive framing

Claims (21 extracted, 1 hedged)

Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent I recently attended a workshop about how law professor are using AI. asserted
professor → attend → AI
One professor said that he has trained AI on his writing style by reviewing all of his past publications. asserted
he → say → publications
Thus, any text generated by the AI will be in the same sort of style that the professor has--or perhaps had. asserted
professor → generate → style
Law professors will often research in certain areas of the law, but across all categories, they write with a particular approach called a scholarly voice. asserted
they → research → approach
Many junior professors struggle with developing their own voice. asserted
professors → struggle → voice
Indeed, I would wager that for most scholars, their voice changes over the years. asserted
voice → wager → years
For sure, my voice has changed substantially since I started teaching in 2012. asserted
I → change → 2012
What does AI do to this process? asserted
AI → do → process
Perhaps established professors have a corpus of writings to train AI, but newbies do not. asserted
newbies → establish → AI
How are developing writers supposed to build their own voice if AI has nothing to train on? asserted
AI → develop → nothing
I suppose the obvious reply is that junior scholars should not use AI. asserted
scholars → suppose → AI
But I would wager that the youngest writers are likely the most tech savvy, and may have even started using this tech in the earliest years of their practice. uncertain
writers → wager → practice
Soon enough, all people on the hiring market will have come of age with AI in law school. asserted
people → hire → school
And they will never have a chance to develop their own voice without a helpful agent to assist. asserted
they → have → agent
This fact will necessarily affect how law schools hire and grant tenure. asserted
schools → affect → tenure
Perhaps professors should be asked to describe exactly how they use AI in their scholarship. asserted
they → ask → scholarship
But I am not confident this inquiry will prove much. asserted
inquiry → prove → much
Ultimately, we should just presume that nearly everything written was aided by AI, unless a professor affirmatively states it was written old school. asserted
it → presume → AI
And with that presumption in place, I struggle to measure how much the professor actually brings to the scholarly inquiry. asserted
professor → struggle → inquiry
We will just end up rewarding whoever can coach their agents the best. asserted
whoever → end → agents
Scholarly creativity will give way to law coding. asserted
creativity → give → coding
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