For the month of January, we will be publishing a series of essays written by students from the Fall 2024 “Islamic Law Lab” course at Harvard Law School, convened by Professor Intisar Rabb.  As part of their assignments, students were tasked with posing ChatGPT a question related to Islamic law and then conducting their own independent research to validate, and where applicable, critically examine, ChatGPT’s responses.

The essays in this series reveal mixed results about the current efficacy and accuracy of ChatGPT in the context of Islamic law.  On the one hand, ChatGPT was often successful in grasping the general contours of the subject matter; on the other hand, at times, it glossed over crucial details and produced oversimplified accounts.  While some students were pleasantly surprised that ChatGPT’s answers closely matched their own, others highlighted the need for independent research and verification.  Additionally, we will be publishing a few “primary source” essays that describe, situate, and contextualize primary sources of Islamic law such as fatwās and court cases.

Overall, we hope these essays will offer timely and fresh perspectives to Islamic law scholars engaged in cutting-edge work at the intersection of Islamic law and AI.