An Australian law firm has developed a computer program that uses artificial intelligence. The program determines the legality of a trade promotion. http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legalwhiteboard/2014/09/artificial-intelligence-and-the-law.html
I believe that artificial intelligence in the coming years will dramatically alter the way law is practised. Computers have the ability to sift through data more thoroughly and effectively than humans ever could. In doing so, artificial intelligence will displace parts of and maybe even whole practice areas.
We can even see the potential of artificial intelligence within our own phones. Siri incorporates artificial intelligence to answer basic questions. Even though Siri is in its infancy today, within the next decade Siri will evolve exponentially. Eventually artificial intelligence will be sophisticated enough to proliferate the legal realm.
It is only a question of time until artificial intelligence forever changes the landscape of the legal profession. However, this does not spell the end of lawyers. It merely begets a new role.
Until computers can mimic human emotion and human connection, there will be a place for human lawyers. As we see in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, it is not Brutus that wins the mob over. It is Antony, who appeals to the emotions of the mob.
ANTONY Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it; It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you. 141 You are not wood, you are not stones, but men; And, being men, bearing the will of Caesar, It will inflame you, it will make you mad: ‘Tis good you know not that you are his heirs; 145 For, if you should, O, what would come of it!
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