What is the real impact of using artificial intelligence in legal research?

The potential benefits of AI in law are real. It can increase lawyers' productivity and avoid costly mistakes. In some cases, it can also grease the wheels of justice to increase the speed of investigation and decision-making. However, AI is not yet ready to replace human judgment in the legal profession.

The risk of a data-embedded bias that drives AI and the inability to properly understand the raison d'être of decisions derived from AI in a way that is comprehensible to humans (i.e., artificial intelligence) have already demonstrated that it will alter many sectors, including the legal profession. The mission of the New York State Standing Commission on Access to Justice is to expand access to civil legal services. For some time, algorithms have been used to discover the legal process to identify the relevant documents of an opponent in a lawsuit. The process of analyzing the reasons why an AI makes a recommendation can lead us to better understand the reality and limitations of human explanations or rationalizations for its decisions.

However, in just a few short years, AI has become a central point of conversation inside and outside the legal industry. This AI platform also analyzes legal documents and suggests negotiable clauses to users. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to learn, solve problems, make decisions and understand language, all tasks normally performed (you guessed it) by humans. For AI to be able to draft legal contracts, for example, it will have to be trained to be a competent lawyer.

It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence, but AI need not be limited to methods that are biologically observable. Recently, Harvey AI was trained with general legal information, including case law and reference documents, after initially learning from general Internet data. But it would be an equally serious mistake to rule out the role of AI, which will radically change the landscape for both providers and users of legal services. Artificial intelligence will provide people in low-income communities with more access to legal advice.

In addition, even if AI technology has an impact on employment, not all legal jobs will be replaced in the near future. In fact, a wide range of legal tasks are already being automated and, naturally, a mountain of ethical issues will require thorough debate and examination.

Hilary Raney
Hilary Raney

Unapologetic reader. Professional social media scholar. Professional tv nerd. Hipster-friendly food scholar. Wannabe food fanatic.