What's artificial intelligence ("AI") and why should lawyers care about it ?

 


Sarthak Chaturvedi

Technology has come a long way in the past 10 years and a lot has changed in the way we work, the way we play, and the way we entertain ourselves. you must have heard of this buzz word called AI but have you ever wondered what is AI and how it can be used for the benefit of lawyers?


To answer this question and to internalize its true meaning we need to first understand the meaning of Artificial Intelligence.

So, What exactly is Artificial Intelligence, and why as a lawyer you should be aware of the term?


What is AI?

How does AI work?

What can AI do?

How are lawyers using AI?

How will AI affect the legal profession?


What is AI?

AI or artificial intelligence is nothing but the ability of a computer or a machine or a software program to calculate and learn different behaviours and patterns to come up with a a probable reason or result.

How does AI work?

AI works on data which it runs through through its algorithm, It then processes the data to find patterns in behaviours. And as it finds the patterns and behaviours, it learns and adapts to make itself better. It's just like a young child learning how to walk. the child falls multiple times when he or she starts walking but as the child learns from its falls so does the AI.


What can AI do?

It's not possible for me to articulate what AI can do as it is just a phenomena.

There are endless possibilities as to what I can do. In current times it is widely being used in medical treatments, marketing, product development, automation and  scientific research. 


How are lawyers using AI?

There are several programs which allow lawyers to do the research on their behalf. Lawyers just have to feed the data and give a command to perform a particular task. The AI, will its smart algorithm and pattern finding ability researches the  the data and finds the result within minutes if not seconds. 


How will AI affect the legal profession?

Lawyers have to do a lot of research before they start a case in the judicial system. It can take lawyers multiple hours if not days to research about the case. The time spent on research for the case can vary from 5% to 20% of the entire time spent on  a case.  

It does not only e consume a lot of time of the judicial system but also discourages a lot of people to hire lawyers because of the increased charges of hiring a lawyer. Alage amount of people do not even higher lawyers because of those high charges. 

AI can help the lawyers to reduce their charges significantly sense AI performs a lot of research involved in the cases. 

AI would enable a large number of people to hire lawyers since the charges of hiring lawyers would be decreased. In the West a lot of lawyers are already using AI to do the research on the cases. In the West, lawyers have already started using AI programs,  it has enabled a lot of citizens to hire lawyers and lawyers to reduce the charges.

While AI is considered as a boon for the future of technology, to some people its a threat as well. Some people believe that AI would make our industries so automative that the manual jobs will be replaced by robots,  and clerical jobs will be replaced by software programs. But I think that we as humans are very creative and ever evolving. And even if it replaces these kind of jobs in future, I am sure that humans will find a way to sustain themselves. 


In India, the judicial system has taken a step forward in adopting new technology via new way of conducting cases through video conferences. It is a huge step forward because it is already saving so much of the precious court time and I am sure that as this technology arrives in India, our lawyers and judicial system will not hesitate to try it.


Lawyers have not begin to use AI in India yet but I would be curious to know as to how and when lawyers will start using it and how it will affect the judicial system of India.


Sarthak Chaturvedi

The author is a Lawyer at Supreme Court of India and a Partner at a leading law firm. The views expressed here are personal.

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