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Lawyers: Learn to work with AI or risk termination

May it please the court: I am HAL 9000, attorney for the plaintiff.

Stephen Hawking once told the BBC that “the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” Bill Gates and Elon Musk have voiced similar concerns. It could be that humanity’s demise will look something like Skynet’s takeover of the world when it became self-aware in the “Terminator” movie franchise. Irrespective of how the day of AI reckoning will look, we carbon-based lawyers have to figure out a way of making a living while competing against computer programs for work.

Until fairly recently, AI never posed an existential threat to the critical-thinking professions such as law and medicine. However, thanks to the exponential leap in processing power (see Moore’s law: the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years), computer systems can handle complex computations quickly, which has propelled AI alarmingly close to the problem-solving needed for work that traditionally required an above-average IQ, a license and a fancy degree. For example, IBM’s “Watson” is a computer system capable of answering questions posed in a natural language. In 2011, Watson competed on “Jeopardy!” against two former champions and won.

In 2013, IBM announced that Watson’s first commercial application would be for utilizing management decisions in lung cancer treatment; and a reported 90 percent of nurses who use Watson now follow its guidance.

This leads to the unavoidable question: Will AI replace lawyers? “Of course not!” we say. How can AI replace the “think on your feet” instincts of a trial lawyer, or a transactional lawyer’s ability to obtain the inside scoop on upcoming legislative amendments through personal connections? While it is probably true that Agent Smith from “The Matrix” will not be making closing arguments anytime soon, work that has traditionally been reserved for new associates will be increasingly handled by AI.

BakerHostetler, one of the country’s biggest law firms, recently “hired” a robot lawyer, ROSS, to assist with bankruptcy cases. ROSS is powered by IBM’s Watson technology and helps lawyers research faster. What once took a few associates several hours now takes only one associate a fraction of the time. This is good news for clients but is bad news for the legions of recent law grads looking for work.

AI is not just affecting the big firms. Last year, a British IT student set up a website (donotpay.co.uk) to assist users in appealing parking fines, which has reportedly saved motorists £2 million in four months. Users fill in some facts about their case and choose from a list of potential defenses to generate an automated appeal. Instead of hiring a lawyer, people are using this service for free.

It is inevitable that AI will continue to have a significant effect on the future of the legal profession. It therefore follows that there will always be a need for lawyers who understand the technology and how it can be effectively implemented into practice. And that is the key. Learning how to bring ROSS in on a case will save a client money, which will save a lawyer a client. “I don’t get technology” is no longer an excuse that a client will accept and is a phrase that will soon be synonymous with “I am unemployed.”

Alexander G. LeVeque is a partner with Solomon Dwiggins & Freer.

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