Artificial Intelligence And The Evolution of Law Posted on : Jul 17 - 2018

One cannot open up their computer or turn on their television for any significant amount of time without seeing or hearing about artificial intelligence. The term evokes an almost immediate emotional reaction, often with ideas of a dystopian future where the human race is no longer master of the planet. Without delving too deep into that rabbit hole, I would instead leave The Terminator and other equally bleak futures out of this particular conversation and instead focus on artificial intelligence and the law.

The current application of artificial intelligence to the practice of law was a discussion topic at our most recent board of directors meeting for Loyola Law School. The discussion centered around the ability of a computer to perform a task or series of functions that had traditionally been the responsibility of a legal professional or team of professionals. After a lively discussion, I left with the three following questions:

• Are machines capable of what would be considered regular social interaction with a client such that the client would be comfortable interacting with the AI as their primary contact?

• What are the current applications of artificial intelligence in the law, or what can a machine actually do?

• What, if any, are the limitations to AI as it relates to the practice of law? Will computers continue to evolve, develop, learn and undertake increasingly more difficult and nuanced professional legal undertakings?

As a practicing lawyer, there are specific jobs I undertake on a daily basis that I have difficulty delegating to anyone, never mind a computer. Complexities inevitably arise with almost all legal matters and are often compounded by the clients and their expectations, assumptions and presumptions. How could one trust a computer to address the complex and evolving needs of a client and interact with said client on a subject that could range from as trivial as a parking ticket to as consequential as a murder charge? The short answer is one could not -- and therein lies, at least for the time being, one of the significant limitations of artificial intelligence as it relates to the law.

Assuming that one understands that a machine will probably not be taking the first meeting with a prospective client, what services can AI subsequently perform? AI is currently being used to review legal documents at a rate that is nothing short of astounding. According to Bloomberg (paywall), JPMorgan Chase announced that it had utilized COIN software for contract intelligence to review in seconds what had previously taken a slew of lawyers and loan officers some 360,000 hours to review. View More