How Does AI Affect the Legal Field?

What is AI?

First, what exactly is AI? AI can be described as cognitive computing, which means “teaching computers how to learn, reason, communicate and make decisions” like humans can but (usually) better. Things that used to be time-consuming, such as research or a math problem, can be found from a simple question using AI technology such as Chat GPT.

Is AI already being used in Legal Professions?

AI is not necessarily a new invention and has been implemented in the legal field for various tasks. Some lawyers use Machine Learning (ML) to review contracts more efficiently because this type of AI can spot issues and errors that might have been missed by humans. Another major way legal professionals use AI is through scanning legal research which allows individuals to gather more comprehensive and relevant information much quicker than ever before. The legal field also utilizes AI by having everything electronically stored rather than stored through paper, which helps in the organization process and makes things much easier to find. These uses are relatively standard across many different fields, and have become a very normal use of AI. But are there consequences involved with relying on and using AI technology in the legal field?

What are the Consequences of AI in the Law?

People fear AI because they believe that, eventually, AI will take the place of humans. One argument in the legal profession is that, eventually, AI will be used to replace human judgment in court trials. This would make resolving cases much more efficient and predictable. But is this actually possible? It seems that as of right now, AI is not ready for this type of heavy lifting because AI does have its own biases, and it is not yet trained well enough in trying to explain the complex decision making process that humans employ.

Another potential consequence of AI is that its use will eventually replace the job of lawyers completely. AI offers efficiently created work that has less errors in it, in comparison to human generated work. But does this mean that human input will not be needed at all? No, it does not. AI might help to accelerate work that would take a human weeks to do, but human input will always be needed for the final draft. No matter how sophisticated AI technology becomes, it will never truly be able to replace what a human mind can detect, and the decisions it makes. Lawyers have very specific ethical obligations to their clients, and an AI machine might never be able to sufficiently give a client what a human mind can offer.

This consequence also should not be feared because there is no way an AI can make a “convincing presentation to a jury.” AI is not able to fully weigh all the factors that go into making decisions during a trial, whether big or small, and it also will never be able to replace the relationship a lawyer has with their client.

It is very important to see all the benefits that AI can bring to the legal profession and how it can bring things to the next level, making work more cost and time efficient. There might be some initial drawbacks, but when looking deeper into this situation, it becomes clear that AI will never truly be able to replace legal professionals because of what human interaction provides to clients.