Previously, we told you that robots will be destroying the legal profession by 2030, and really, the robots need to step it up. They’ve only just now gotten hired at a major law firm, Baker & Hostetler, for their bankruptcy work. They’re never going to wipe lawyers off the Earth at this rate.
The lawyer in question is Ross, and he’s really more of a reference tool than a replacement for a living, breathing lawyer praying to bill enough hours to pay off their student loans this month. Ross is built on IBM’s Watson platform and the idea is that you can ask it a question in natural language, and Ross will helpfully provide an answer with legal precedent and examples. You know, what a junior lawyer’s job used to be.
Joking aside, this is interesting for a number of reasons: The actual work of law is slaving away over paperwork, looking up ridiculously obscure decisions, and trying to puzzle out the sometimes arcane rules that dictate everything from how you get divorced to how you put up a fence in your backyard. Being able to strip away those inefficiencies would make legal cases cheaper and faster to work on, potentially making it easier for people to navigate the legal system and get some of the sweet juicy pulp of justice out of it. Still, this needs to be tested before it’s reliable; computers haven’t made great lawyers so far.
(Via American Lawyer)
