This article has been written by Kanishka pursuing a Diploma in Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Laws couse from LawSikho and edited by Shashwat Kaushik.

Introduction

Technology has impacted human society in every aspect of life. It has become one of the recent topics to discuss. With the evolution of technology, it has started to disrupt old methods and create new ones. One such disruption can be observed in the legal profession. It is considered one of the oldest professions, as it legally relies on human expertise and intricate knowledge of laws. The profession has involved a high degree of skill, expertise, and attention to detail. The article will explore whether the rise of AI in law has any impact on the law profession.

Meaning of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be defined as the ability of a digital computer to perform any task that is associated with intelligence. It is often connected with intellectual processes such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalise, or learn from experience. It is regarded as a simulation of human intelligence. Some of the specific applications of AI can include expert systems, natural language processing, speech recognition, and machine vision. In artificial intelligence, there is a requirement for specialised hardware and software. Some of the languages that are included in the AI are Python, R, Java, C++, and Julia. 

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AI has helped the business to make the business work efficiently. Some of the areas in which AI has helped businesses are customer service work, lead generation, fraud detection, and quality control. Moreover, it is also been observed that AI performs tasks much better than humans, particularly in cases of repetitive, detailed-oriented tasks

How does AI perform its functions

According to one of the publications made by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, artificial intelligence has four potential goals or definitions, which are as follows: 

Human ApproachIdeal Approach
Goal 1: A system that thinks like a human.Goal 3: A system that thinks rationally.
Goal 2: A system that acts like a human.Goal 4: A system that acts rationally.

One of the ideal characteristics of AI is the ability to rationalise and take actions to achieve a specific goal. For instance, if you write, “I want four questions related to World War II,” AI will provide you with those sets of questions. AI works on the principle that human intelligence includes mimicking/copying human cognitive activity.

Some of the cognitive skills that are included in AI programmes are:

  1. Learning: This programme focuses on acquiring data and creating rules to turn into actionable information. These rules are called algorithms, which help the programme provide step-by-step instructions to complete a task.
  2. Reasoning: This AI focuses on choosing the right algorithm to reach a desired outcome.
  3. Self-correction: This AI programme is designed to fine-tune algorithms and ensure the most accurate results possible.
  4. Creativity: This AI uses neural networks, statistical methods, etc. to generate new images, text, music, and ideas.

Artificial Intelligence and law

With the rise of artificial intelligence, there has been automation in mental tasks. Though it may be optimising for blue-collar jobs, it is creating fundamental changes for many white-collar jobs. It has been in the field of law too. AI has had a profound impact on the practise of law. AI has been more like an aid than a replacement for attorneys, as it has been used for various purposes such as reviewing contracts, finding relevant documents during the discovery process, and conducting legal research. It is seen as a catalyst for growth. According to many legal professionals, AI is creating growth opportunities. It helps reduce the friction needed to launch new services or expand into a new market. However, at the same time, it has created a fear among the attorneys that it will replace their jobs in the upcoming years.

Assistance provided by AI in legal profession

Artificial intelligence has helped the legal profession by providing aid in the following manner: 

Due diligence review

Due diligence can be defined as an analysis that an investor uses for investment by verifying facts such as financial and legal records. Since they conduct due diligence, legal professionals are often required to review a large number of documents, such as contracts. With the assistance of artificial intelligence, legal professionals can review their documents quickly.

Contract review and formation

With the help of AI, the formation of contracts has become much easier. With the arrival of AI tools, legal professionals can draft contracts on a self-service basis. Through these platforms, both lawyers and clients can access them easily. Moreover, with AI-driven document management software, legal files such as contracts, case files, notes, and emails are managed easily. It also provides security to the information, as these tools have features such as document ID and check-in/check-out privileges.

Legal research

Another feature that AI has helped legal professionals with is legal research. It has made the process easier, faster, and more efficient. AI helps professionals quickly scan and search large databases, which can include statutes, regulations, practise areas, jurisdictions, etc.

Litigation analysis

AI software tools help lawyers review precedents and draft more accurate documents for litigation purposes.

Advantages of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence has contributed to legal professionals in the following manner: 

Time management

Lawyers often get busy with repetitive and mundane tasks, such as researching laws or scouring through documents. With the help of AI, this process gets automated, thus avoiding time consumption. Moreover, they could focus on aspects like job satisfaction, client management, etc.

Productivity

With the help of AI, lawyers become more efficient in their work. With the trained algorithms in machine learning, it can identify the pattern easily and provide information within a fraction of a second.

Elevate lawyers’ work

With the help of sophisticated AI-powered tools, lawyers are able to do other tasks such as drafting legal documents, conducting legal research, and analysing contracts. This helps to speed up routine tasks and helps lawyers work on higher-level tasks such as negotiation, advocacy, and counselling.

Critics of artificial intelligence 

Despite its tremendous contribution to the legal field, it has been subjected to various criticisms, such as: 

Biases

Though AI systems are based on unbiased data, if historical data is used to train AI models, then it will create bias and discriminatory patterns. This will create unjust outcomes. This will establish injustice as paramount in legal practise, such as fairness and justice.

Lack of transparency

There is a lack of transparency with the AI models because they do provide clear reasons when they arrive at their judgements or conclusions. This defeats legal professionals ability to justify their arguments with appropriate reasoning, thus lowering trust in the legal system.

Data privacy

Putting sensitive data in the AI models can severely affect the privacy of the client. Legal professionals must ensure that the data privacy of the client is not infringed by any unauthorised access, breach, or misuse of sensitive information.

Applications used by lawyers

Some of the apps that are used by legal professionals are:

  1. LegalRobot: It is an AI-driven platform that provides assistance in understanding and drafting legal documents.
  2. DonotPay: It is an AI-driven platform that simplifies the process of handling legal issues such as consumer rights, small claim disputes, etc.
  3. Latch: This AI-driven tool provides assistance in legal practise management, such as document automation, billing, etc.
  4. OneLaw.ai: This AI-driven tool provides assistance in legal research to lawyers.
  5. PatentPal: PatentPal helps simplify the patent search and analysis for inventors, lawyers, law firms, and companies.

Will AI replace lawyers in the future

According to the report, the AI industry is expected to grow from $0.94 billion in 2023 to $3.29 billion by 2023. Though it has helped to increase automation in legal firms and corporations, lawyers still fear that their jobs are at risk. This can be seen in one of the 2018 Pew Research Centre studies, which revealed that 65% of Americans were fearful and uncertain about automation, which has impacted the workforce. This has increased in 2023 with the increase in the use of AI.

Despite these worries, a positive view towards AI can be seen. According to Solum, creativity will help lawyers figure out new things that artificial intelligence will be charged with doing. Though lawyers are hesitant about the impact of AI because of detail-oriented work and the importance of accuracy and critical thinking, with the emergence of AI, 22% of a lawyer’s workload would be automated. Moreover, AI will not be sufficient to replace lawyers. Though there may be certain tasks, human intelligence, creativity, and emotions cannot replace them. It cannot replace skills such as convincing skills, strategic decisions, and relationships with clients. AI cannot take the position of leader while motivating a team of attorneys to produce their work.

Conclusion

To conclude, AI has helped to transform the legal industry in unprecedented ways. Though it has helped lawyers relieve themselves from mundane tasks such as legal research and e-discovery, at the same time, the emergence of AI has posed various challenges such as data privacy, lack of transparency, etc. AI can only become a tool for assistance for lawyers and cannot replace lawyers because laws are much more about the laws. It is also about reasoning with appropriate emotions, creativity, critical and analytical analysis, and persuasive skills, which can only be embodied by humans.

References

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