Laura Yeap on AI Law

Generally, when people think about artificial intelligence (AI), people think about machines with cognitive abilities of a human (or better) across a wide range of tasks.

Topics on using AI in the legal industry is a continuing hype, boasting that the improvement in technology can enhance work efficiency in casework preparation and reducing legal costs, reshaping the landscape of the legal sector.  This means apart from keeping the costs low and clients happy, we can take on more workload with the same amount of time spent. What convenience and sounds great on the firms’ treasury.

Wait a minute. 

Most of the practising lawyers during this generation has had either little or no training in technology, and navigating complex AI technology based legal casework programmes capable of producing high quality work could impact a real challenge.  Within a very short timeframe, expectations on lawyers have changed – from a lawyer to an interdisciplinary boffin.  If you don’t believe me, try walking into any firm asking them to explain to you what algorithm is without searching up Google and you will get what I mean.

Another issue I have is, can AI understand what the SRA code of conduct means, especially when it comes to the “best interest of the clients”.  Whilst I know my clients personally, I must admit that I am not tech savvy enough to tell you if a LawGPT is capable of this, or if it knows what is not providing advice which could potentially be misleading means.

Well, the good news is that, after writing up this article, I know that I have to undergo some tech training so that I can perform better, as an interdisciplinarian, or a boffin, or both.