Recently, AI (Artificial Intelligence) has rapidly been replacing human occupations. AI can be combined with hardware to do all form of tasks from delivering and transporting objects, to advanced data processing and analysis. In this article, let’s take a look at how AI can replace people in the legal department where expert knowledge and value judgements are required!
#Putting AI and Law together, Legal Tech
Recently, the rapid development of legal tech has enabled the use of AI technology in the legal market. In such market, legal tech is a combination of law and technology, where the AI based legal tech has the advantage of reducing the mundane part of lawyers’ tasks and triggering the popularization of the legal services.
The speed of AI’s information processing such as case searches and document evidence analysis is incomparably faster than humans. The artificial intelligent lawyer ROSS, a lawyers practicing at an American law firm, analyzes legal documents at a rate of one billon pages per second, so that the human lawyers can use their time more efficiently. If the AI takes care of confirming factual data, reviewing precedents, and writing documentations, human lawyers can spend more time on meaningful tasks such as setting up strategies and building network relationships.
Legal tech is also helping to make legal services more accessible and less expensive for the general public through the AI based chat bots and intelligent legal search systems. People can receive simple legal information and advices from home using the chat bot. In an actual case, the UK AI chat hot “Do not pay” prevented one hundred and sixty thousand people from paying 4 million dollars of parking tickets.
#AI the lawyer’s assistance!
Many legal experts say that AI can be developed into a more thorough legal roles, but will not be able to replace it. The judicial system involves judgement on legal issues, judging whether or not to apply a given case to precedents and so on, therefore the human evaluations on values and judgements are crucial.
Additionally, there is a limit to AI when it comes to empathy and communication ability therefore cannot read the general atmosphere of a person, or cannot take into account the complicated multiple interests among people. The domestic lawsuits are especially difficult for AI to completely replace because lawyers often have to settle disputes through mediations and understandings between the involved parties.
If AI can act as assistants so that lawyers focus on disputes rather than being buried in researches, lawyers can focus on protecting and developing the law’s traditions, fairness, and righteousness.
#AI will replace lawyers!
On the contrary, there are also strong belief that AI will replace lawyers someday. In the future AI will be able to ensure the consistency and efficiency of trials based on advanced deep learning and big data analysis.
Recently the United States Supreme Court recognized a ruling of a district court based on an AI algorithm. An AI machine called Compass, used its algorithm to issue a report that there was a possibility of the defendant committing an additional crime, and the prosecutor used the report to argue that the defendant had a risk of violence and a possibility of retaliation. Based on the argument the judge granted the defendant six years of imprisonment.
As such, not only can AI play a crucial role in the ruling, but also am rapidly developing the ability to make decisions on its own. At the current technological level, the accuracy of the AI judgement system developed by a foreign university research team is very high. The research team trained an AI with the judicial precedents related to the European Convention on the Human Rights and afterwards conducted a judicial proceedings. The judgements conducted by the AI had an accuracy of about 80 percent compared to the actual judgments.
#AI lawyers, what are your thoughts?
Technology is advancing at a tremendous rate and is having a big impact in our everyday lives. It is not easy to see how an AI lawyer will affect a human lawyer in the future. Will an AI lawyer be able to replace people? What do you think?
