Current and Future Impacts of Artificial Intelligence on The Legal Profession
In today’s fast paced world, the development of new and cutting-edge technology is happening at a seemingly breakneck pace. This is in spite of the global pandemic plaguing the world. If anything, the reliance on advanced technology has drastically increased with the emergence of COVID 19. This is especially true in the case of artificial intelligence (AI).
In a recent BBC article by Zoe Thomas it was said that Walmart, America’s biggest retailer, is using robots to scrub its floors, similarly robots in South Korea have been used to measure temperatures and distribute hand sanitizers. This article goes on to tell us how fast food chains like McDonalds are considering the use of robots as cooks and servers. Surprisingly enough this is not really a new trend, rather the COVID19 pandemic has simply sped up the transition to AI based services. For example, as of 2017 privately manufactured robots were being used for delivery services in Redwood City in California. Another case would be the KP robot utilized by the Kerala police force to perform front office duties. Most notable of all however is probably Google’s driverless cars.
From all these examples we can see one common trend. That is, it is mainly the service and blue-collar jobs are being replaced by AI powered robots. This same Logic applies to the field of law as well. While lawyers themselves might not lose their jobs to AI, it is certain that AI will take over a sizable amount of a lawyer’s workload. Similarly, those who provide assistance to lawyers like paralegals and legal researchers run the risk of seeing their work taken over by AI robots and programs.
Coming to the likely Impacts that AI will have one the Legal field, it can be said that the most change is to be anticipated in four major areas. These are: Research, Cost, Efficiency and Competitiveness.
Notable amongst these is Legal research, which has and will always be a vital part of the legal profession, with or without the use of AI. Traditionally, legal research has frustrated legal professionals and their clients as it is time consuming and expensive. The use of AI could help change this situation. For one thing, AI can help drastically narrow down the existing search time: With a simple click we can have access to all relevant case information, that may be of use to us. This is a major improvement to existing search engines which are far more cumbersome and require far more specific inputs to get the desired search results. This is all thanks to advances made by companies like ROSS Intelligence, Kira Systems and Casetext.
Probably the biggest advantage that AI offers is the reduction in operating costs for legal practices, both big and small. Clerical work, especially in the legal field is seen as an area prone to human error. Given that AI is expected to replace most of the clerical and paralegal work in law, we can expect to see a decrease in operating costs. The reduction in operating costs would quickly compensate for the initial investment costs on AI.
With a decrease in time taken for research there would naturally be an increase in efficiency, with lawyers having more time to focus on more central tasks like preparing case arguments or advising clients. AI research tools can also help lawyers produce deliverables quicker and also improve the quality of their overall service. Moreover, AI tools can continue with various forms of work when their human counterparts are resting or taking breaks, therefore enhancing overall efficiency. These improvements altogether contribute to an increase in the competitiveness of lawyers and their respective law firms thereon, with firms as a whole being able to provide faster, higher quality services to clients.
Having understood the overall impact that AI will have on the legal profession, it is important that we now look at some specific target areas. Notable among these being the impact on the judiciary, on intellectual property rights and also litigation.
It is common to see inordinate delays in the dissemination of justice. Most legal professionals acknowledge that much improvement is required in this area. In context of the Judiciary, AI could serve the role of a smart aide for Judges, a relationship akin to the common man and Alexa. As a result, Judges can prepare to take on more cases, as most of the time-consuming tasks have been delegated to the AI assistants. Furthermore, AI can help in the administrative process of courts, performing various clerical duties and maintaining court records, thereby increasing efficiency and decreasing cost. Also, if we were to take a leap of faith, it would also be possible to allot cases of a trivial nature to ‘smart’ judges, which are basically non-human judges powered by AI. This method of justice delivery is already being implemented by China’s people’s court with much success. According to the Chinese, millions of cases are being decided by these courts, furthermore they are completely over the internet and do not require citizens to appear in court. This would be an ideal solution in the current pandemic plagued global climate.
An area of Law which is closely connected with the judiciary and its processes is litigation. Litigation is without a doubt the heart and soul of the legal profession. However With 3.3 crore pending cases, it is a dire need for reform and change, in the system. One major technology that can assist litigators and trial lawyers alike is TAR or technology assisted review. TAR is basically an AI software which electronically classifies documents based on inputs from its reviewers. That is with a single click and a few inputs this software can cross reference all relevant legal information in relation to the case in question. It can also eliminate all documents that are potentially redundant, thus proving to be a huge time and money saver, especially for up and coming lawyers operating on a tight budget. To add to this, AI software and programs are already playing a key role in due diligence and document automation for many major law firms.
Another form of cutting-edge technology currently in the works is predictive analytics. Which uses the vast amount of information both lawyers and law firms accumulate to predict the likely result of a case. This helps lawyers make better decisions, and provide more sound legal advice to their clients. This is especially true in the case of whether to settle or push forward with a legal dispute. All these technologies can play a role in reducing the gap between the small and large law firms. Furthermore, the difficulties of surviving in fields like litigation will be substantially reduced for first generation law professionals.
‘AI is a new digital frontier that will have a profound impact on the world. It will have enormous technological, economic, and social consequences and is going to transform the way we produce and distribute goods and services, as well as the way we work and live.’ These are the words of WIPO director general Francis Gurry, from a 2018 interview. In the interview Gurry goes on to say that AI would have an impact on how IP concepts are traditionally viewed, for example in the case of AI generated music there would be have to be new rules and foundation governing concepts like the idea of a “composer,” “author,” and “inventor” as ascertained from the interview it is difficult to pinpoint how exactly AI will transform intellectual property rights in the future, however it is certain that AI will provide much needed assistance to the WIPO in the patent, copyright and trademark filing process. ‘In 2016, the last year for which data are available, around 3.1 million patent applications, some 7 million trademark applications, and 963,000 industrial design applications (covering 1.2 million designs) were filed worldwide. That volume is rapidly exceeding the processing capacity of available human resources.’ This piece of statistic offered by Gurry is a clear indicator of the inevitable advent of AI to all major frontiers of human life. In fact, the WIPO has already developed a novel AI-empowered image search tool for trademarks, which is embedded in the WIPO Global Brand Database. This tool which is known as WIPO translate, in spite of being in the initial developmental stages, is still quite effective.
Having discussed AI and the multitude of benefits it brings to human life; it is now time to look at some drawbacks. For one, the are no comprehensive laws at present in relation to liability and negligence in the case of AI. Therefore, a fundamental question is left unanswered, that is who is liable for accidents caused by AI as would be the case with the accidents caused by Google’s driverless cars. Also, it has to be noted that AI is still in its developmental stages, as a result costs and maintenance are still on the higher side. Also, there are major questions of ethics and bias, such as the possibility of an AI program incorporating the limitations and bias of its human creators. Similarly, there is a fear that AI could be misused for crime and fraud. Furthermore, there are nagging concerns about the effectiveness and best ways to utilize AI.
While AI may not be the finished product as of yet, we can be optimistic that many of its fallbacks will be addressed with time. A comprehensive legal framework can undoubtably be established once we get a clearer view on how AI work on the ground level. Also costs and maintenance are definitely bound to decrease in the long run with more investment and research. Also, as said by the ATLAS loss prevention Journal on AI published in 2019, a ‘Centaur Approach’ would be the most effective way to utilize AI in the law field. Simply put, an AI program and a human legal professional work in close conjunction with each other, with the AI acting as the human being’s eyes and ears, ensuring that he\she doesn’t make any basic errors and is given additional insight and details when required. With this, we can be optimistic of a better future driven by AI and its various applications.
