Humankind is ever-evolving. New developments enter the market each day, making life a little bit simpler than it was yesterday. The rise of Artificial Intelligence has changed our personal lives, our transportation, and most relevant, our careers. Artificial Intelligence has spread wide and far, and it is now responding to emails, preparing taxes, operating self-driven vehicles, helping out around the house, and more recently, doing legal research.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
In simple terms, artificial intelligence (“AI”) is a simulation of human intelligence processed by machines, especially computer systems.[1] Specifically, common applications include expert systems, natural language processing, speech recognition, and machine vision.[2] These products are developed by specialized hardware and software for writing and training machines to learn various algorithms.[3] The processes used for AI have gotten so developed that it has now been effectively used to automate several tasks that are ordinarily done by humans, and even outwork them.
Benefits Associated with Artificial Intelligence in the Legal Field
As AI has made its breakthrough in the legal field, its presence has contributed greatly to the time-consuming difficulties that customarily accompany legal work. In fact, the American Bar Association has listed various ways that AI has benefitted law firms, which include:
- saving time;
- earlier and more accurate risk assessment;
- production of high-quality, more consistent work;
- improvement of organizational and logical structure;
- enhancement of creative analysis and identification of persuasive precedents;
- reduction of attorney stress and frustration; and
- the advancement of client relations.[4]
The ABA associates these goals with smaller, more incremental work that AI systems are able to do. In the essence of time management, these processes have allowed for faster reviewing and researching time. This coincides with the benefits of a more accurate risk assessment as the AI software is trained to detect errors with quicker processing times than a human would ever be able to ascertain. Additionally, once these processes have been properly built out, the software can essentially eliminate human error. Well-developed software does not experience distraction as people do, which enables efficiency and consistent work each time. Regarding logical structure and organization, the automatic document comparison allows for reciprocity across all forms and quickly discovers any gaps that must be addressed.
Considering the recent evolution of AI, Lexis Nexis has even developed its own form of artificial intelligence geared towards expediting the legal research process. On the current version of Lexis Nexis, AI is set to answer questions posed in their search bar instead of having to search through case law for an answer to a legal question. For example, when asking Lexis Nexis the following: “Are suits against political subdivisions capped under the Texas Torts Claims Act?” The site is now set to auto-populate a rule directly from a case to answer your question. The site’s response is shown below.
This feature allows legal questions to be answered at the forefront, which creates a major advantage regarding time management for attorneys.
Apart from this evolution, Lexis Nexis is also generating software called Lexis+ AI.[5] This program is a great progression, as it functions much like ChatGPT. As many of us know, ChatGPT is another AI product that works as a chatroom function to generate human speech-like text responses to questions posed by its users.[6] These questions and answers have a wide range from all things work-related to recipes, and with the new Lexis+ AI system, the operation is exactly alike. Users are able to submit questions to the site and receive a cohesive response as if they are chatting with another human who has an endless capacity for case law and legislation. In a matter of mere seconds, the program can draft summaries, legal documents, and communications. Apart from this, citations can be created on Lexis+ AI, and allow consumers to save the generated text into the user’s own generated folders.[7]
Risks Associated with Artificial Intelligence in the Legal Field
While AI appears to make the lives of lawyers everywhere much easier, there are some hesitations with the programming. For starters, there is a large lack of human judgment.[8] The programs have shown to be effective, but some errors in interpretation are always possible, especially when the issues concern highly-complex legal issues amongst others.[9] Without this aspect of human touch, the systems tend to lack any tendency to find stylistic changes. While each attorney formats and crafts their work to their own preferences, AI may have a difficult time learning the behavior of each attorney in larger-sized firms.
Apart from an absence of human awareness, there can also be an overreliance on AI that creates inherent risks.[10] As our legal system has been established by humans and legal precedent, that consideration should seemingly prevail. As we must consider, while the use of AI is efficient and often timely, judges, juries, and our clients are the ultimate decision-makers on what develops regarding a case.
The Future of AI in the Legal Field
While AI has become incredibly helpful and will continue to grow, making it the final consideration in legal research or any sort of decision-making can be seen as a hazard. AI is a growing field; it will continue to evolve, as it is better trained and more equipped to handle more complex legal issues, but it is always the most advantageous and prudent job of law firms and attorneys to run an independent search outside of the guise of AI. This tool will become exceedingly useful as it continues to develop, but total reliance on it would likely be a dangerous outcome.
Written by:
Kayla Sultemeier
Law Clerk
GUERRA LLP
875 East Ashby Pl
Suite 1200
San Antonio, Texas 78212
Phone: (210) 447-0500
Frank Guerra
Board Certified – Personal Injury Law
Texas Board of Legal Specialization
GUERRA LLP
875 East Ashby Pl
Suite 1200
San Antonio, Texas 78212
Phone: (210) 447-0500
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[1] https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/AI-Artificial-Intelligence#:~:text=Artificial%20intelligence%20is%20the%20simulation,speech%20recognition%20and%20machine%20vision.
[2] https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/AI-Artificial-Intelligence#:~:text=Artificial%20intelligence%20is%20the%20simulation,speech%20recognition%20and%20machine%20vision.
[3] https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/AI-Artificial-Intelligence#:~:text=Artificial%20intelligence%20is%20the%20simulation,speech%20recognition%20and%20machine%20vision.
[4] https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/AI-Artificial-Intelligence#:~:text=Artificial%20intelligence%20is%20the%20simulation,speech%20recognition%20and%20machine%20vision.
[5] https://www.abajournal.com/web/article/lexisnexis-announces-new-generative-ai-platform-lexis-ai
[6] https://blog.enterprisedna.co/what-is-chat-gpt-everything-you-need-to-know/
[7] https://www.abajournal.com/web/article/lexisnexis-announces-new-generative-ai-platform-lexis-ai
[8] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pros-cons-ai-powered-legal-research-aditya-tyagi#:~:text=Lack%20of%20human%20judgment%3A%20While,that%20involve%20complex%20legal%20issues.
[9] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pros-cons-ai-powered-legal-research-aditya-tyagi#:~:text=Lack%20of%20human%20judgment%3A%20While,that%20involve%20complex%20legal%20issues.
[10] https://www.americanbar.org/groups/intellectual_property_law/publications/landslide/2018-19/january-february/pros-pitfalls-artificial-intelligence-ip-broader-legal-profession/
