In the event of a court case to decide if society should accept or reject artificial intelligence (AI), it is likely the jury would be deadlocked.
It appears impossible to come to a conclusion as to whether the advantages, such as automating written tasks and analyzing sizeable amounts of data quickly, outweigh the difficulties with biased data and a lack of precision and responsibility.
AI can be viewed as both a hazard and a chance for the legal profession. The Law Society of the UK projected in 2021 that there may be a "drastic decline" in human employment due to AI.
This year's research from Pennsylvania, New York, and Princeton Universities estimated that the legal field is the most probable to be influenced by AI.
Simultaneously, AI can be an immensely advantageous tool for examining and forming arguments for legal cases; although, there is a history of disastrous results.
This year, New York lawyer Steven Schwartz encountered a rather unique situation when a man sued an airline over personal injury; the lawyer used the popular AI system ChatGPT to look into precedents, only to discover that six out of seven of the cases it had presented had been fabricated.
Many law firms have been hesitant to adopt such systems, but Ben Allgrove (chief innovation officer at global law firm Baker McKenzie) has a different opinion.
He states that this is not so much a technical tale, but rather a story about a lawyer. To get to the crux of the matter, it's necessary to comprehend the disqualified attorney’s lack of professionalism and ethics, then to understand the utilization of the tool.
Since 2017, Baker McKenzie has been tracking the emergence of AI technology. They have since established a team, comprising attorneys, data scientists and data engineers, to evaluate the new systems coming to market.
Mr Allwood predicts that the majority of AI utilization in his company will come from the newly released AI versions of existing legal software providers, such as LexisNexis and Microsoft's 365 Solution for Legal.
In May of this year, LexisNexis unveiled an AI platform that is capable of responding to legal inquiries, producing documents, and outlining legal matters. On the other hand, Microsoft will be releasing Copilot, its AI tool, to commercial clients in the upcoming month, as an additional option for those with 365 subscriptions.
We make use of LexisNexis and Microsoft, and we anticipate these products having more features implemented from generative AI. We will consider investing in them provided it is within our budget and it makes sense.
Generative AI has become a widely discussed topic recently. It is an AI technology able to produce text, images, and music by way of the data on which it has been trained.
Although Microsoft's Copilot is expensive, Mr Allwood states that it would "double our technology spend". This is a caveat to the use of premium, paid-for versions of such tools.
Rather than opt for expensive AI systems built specifically for the legal market, some law firms might decide to pay a lower price to utilize platforms like Bard (Google), Llama (Meta), and ChatGPT (OpenAI). These firms would then be able to customize the platforms to cater to their legal needs.
Baker McKenzie is in the process of conducting trials on a few different approaches. "We are actively seeking out an opportunity to gauge the efficacy of the models we have developed," adds Mr Allwood.
He explained that testing is essential in order to validate performance since all the systems are bound to make mistakes.
The RobinAI legal software system employs an AI co-pilot to accelerate the preparation and inquiry of contracts for both major corporations' internal legal departments and distinct persons.
This AI system was developed by Anthropic, a company founded by a former VP of research from OpenAI, and is being supported with funding from Google.
RobinAI has likewise composed its own AI models that are being prepared on the littlest subtleties of agreement law. Any agreement utilized by the framework gets transferred and labeled, and is then utilized as an educating instrument.
Karolina Lukoszova, co-head of legal and product at RobinAI in the UK, holds that the firm's extensive catalogue of contracts will be essential to the application of AI in law.
She insists that companies ought to develop their own smaller models based on their individual data in order to see optimal outcomes that are isolated.
In order to ensure accuracy, RobinAI has a combination of human legal professionals and AI working together.
Alex Monaco is a lawyer specialising in employment law, who has his own law firm as well as a technology company named Grapple.
Mr Monaco developed Grapple to offer to the public a comprehension of employment law, as well as advice with regards to different workplace situations, such as harassment, bullying and redundancies. Additionally, it creates legal letters and provides summaries of cases.
He is enthusiastic about the possibility for AI to open up the legal profession to everyone.
Approximately 95% of the questions posed to us stem from individuals who lack the financial means to hire lawyers, states Mr Monaco.
Thanks to the abundance of free AI tools, people are now able to fashion their own legal cases. With just access to the internet, they are able to utilize the services of Bard or ChatGPT to create a legal letter. Though it might not be up to the standard of the work of a lawyer, this service comes free of charge.
He states that artificial intelligence is not taking the place of humans or lawyers, but rather it is enhancing the capacity of individuals to gain insight into and employ their legal rights.
He emphasizes that this could be significant in a world that is being driven by artificial intelligence.
Gain access to more articles about artificial intelligence.
Companies and corporations are turning to AI for tasks related to hiring and firing, such as filtering CVs, restructuring and making redundancies. Unfortunately, this puts the average worker at a disadvantage.
Despite its infancy, AI in law is already being confronted by legal issues of its own.
The latest lawsuit to target DoNotPay, which advertises itself as the first robot lawyer in the world and is utilizing AI to contest parking tickets and other matters concerning citizens, alleges that the firm is engaging in the practice of law without a license.
In consequence of Steven Schwartz's situation, some top-ranking judges in the US have made it a prerequisite for attorneys to reveal if AI was utilized for courts submissions.
Mr Monaco believes that determining the parameters and enforcing them will be challenging.
Google's search algorithm employs AI, and now incorporates Bard as well. Therefore, when you google something, you are already utilizing AI to conduct your legal research.
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