The Oxford English Dictionary entry for Artificial Intelligence reads: “The capacity of computers or other machines to exhibit or simulate intelligent behaviour; the field of study concerned with this. Abbreviated AI.” Encyclopedia Britannica expands on this definition, noting that “Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of a computer or a robot controlled by a computer to do tasks that are usually done by humans because they require human intelligence and discernment. Although there are no AIs that can perform the wide variety of tasks an ordinary human can do, some AIs can match humans in specific tasks,” and further specifies that “. . . Machine learning is the method to train a computer to learn from its inputs but without explicit programming for every circumstance.. . [it] helps a computer to achieve artificial intelligence.”
Understanding what AI is (a modern technological ability to externally mechanize certain processes involved in human endeavors), and isn’t (an evil sentient cyborg frankenstein), greatly informs society’s ability to comfortably fold-in AI and its accompanying ethics into our current practice and understanding of the legal field, legal technology, and mechanisms for carrying out justice. The legal field has always been an opportune and interesting arena for assessing the impact of emergent technologies. Throughout history, the invention and implementation of advances in criminology and forensics such as fingerprinting and DNA evidence have forever changed the legal system, and we haven’t looked back since. We no longer think of these aspects of the justice process as anything other than routine and expected. It will soon be the same way with AI for lawyers.
Typically, what comes to mind when people imagine the introduction of AI into the legal field is the idea of something akin to Robocop or Minority Report… One might imagine automaton judges, or the black and white binarism/boolean function decision making we associate with computational thinking. This is not what is meant by legal AI. We are not at a point in time where computers will be “replacing” humans involved in the justice process. Rather, imagine a helpful hand that seeks to automate parts of the menial labor or admin work that all practicing lawyers must do in the line of their work, but need not rely on any legal expertise to accomplish. In the legal field, AI can be used to perform specific cognitive tasks and processes including but not limited to natural language processing, machine learning, and expertise automation. This is “narrow” rather than “general” AI. But the cycle of its use and value might be demonstrated as a wheel, where each component feeds into the next, adding value along the way.
Essentially, an AI technology will typically be used to analyze large sets of data and structure the data to optimize it for use, reducing the required human labor that would otherwise be required to do so, and therefore reducing the cost of legal services and adding value to the delivery of such services. Currently, some AI technologies can address the following aspects of the legal process: E-Discovery in litigation and investigations, transactional due diligence, bulk contract review, legal process automation, classification of documents, finding and extracting deal terms, legal research, predictive analytics & recommendations, augmented drafting, and proofreading. All of this speaks to further emphasize the point that “AI and Analytics won’t steal your jobs. But lawyers who use AI and analytics may well steal your jobs.”
