Will Robot Lawyers Lie Like Humans? Posted on : Sep 01 - 2020

If you’re in trouble, would you rather call your lawyer or his AI sidekick? The right answer is not as obvious as one might think. Law is all-encompassing, especially in the business world. Whether we realize it or not, business takes place in the shadow of the law. Law is still, however, one of those fields primarily conducted by humans. But why? After all, legal work is largely standardized. A machine can surely sift through a trove of documents better than a paralegal. Armed with technology, lawyers are already more efficient than before. The trend toward digitizing law is poised to continue as robot lawyers become smarter and more capable.

For many years, various computer software types have supported lawyers and law firms in their daily operations, mostly with document archiving, text editing, communication, and similar processes. This software improves the work of lawyers—around half of all law firms report they are already using technology to replace human resources. However, it is still human knowledge, experience, and set of various competencies that determine the “final product” of their activities. Soon enough, computer systems will be able to replace human lawyers in more qualitative tasks. And an intelligent AI-powered legal service will suddenly mean any business can have their own in-house lawyer, or better yet, a lawyer in their pocket. The pressing issue in the coming years will not be the efficiency, but how human lawyers will adapt to the new reality. Their competition does not rest and has virtually unlimited computing power.

Currently, the legal system relies on armies of paralegals and interns to discover, index, and process information. Just think of how popular culture portrays law firms. If the firm is private, the offices are gigantic, fancy, and filled with graduates grinding away until the wee hours of the night. At present, this reliance can be expensive, driving up the rates they charge. These types of tasks are also the lowest hanging fruits for the AI systems to tackle. They are repetitive and require much sifting and pattern recognition, skills that suit AI particularly well. View More