Even though the implications of AI tools for confidentiality are being widely discussed worldwide, no law or ethical regulation in Chile refers to attorney-client privilege in the context of AI. To date, no doctrine or case law developments have been made so far.

Despite the lack of relevant developments in this area, both the Professional Ethics Code of 2011 and the work product doctrine are generally in favor of interpreting confidentiality in the manner that is most favorable to comply with lawyers' duty of confidentiality and is explicitly prescribed by article 60(a) of the Professional Ethics Code of 2011. In this regard, general rules may apply to protect the information that lawyers use as input for AI tools, and their output can be considered work product that is also protected by privilege under Chilean law.

In any event, Chilean law and ethics regulations still need to adapt to the ever-growing use of AI tools in the knowledge-work sector. The recently presented law project — which is still in the early stages of legislative discussion (legislative bulletin No. 17112-19 of 3 September 2024) — is the only legislative project related to AI currently in Congress and, beyond being extremely limited, does not cover the issue of confidentiality or privilege of documents used or produced when using AI tools.