There is much hype around artificial intelligence in the legal profession. AI, sometimes referred to as cognitive computing. Refers to computers learning how to complete tasks traditionally done by humans.
I got to see firsthand what all the fuss was about this past weekend. When I attended the CodeX Future Law Conference at Stanford Law School. The panel titled “Hot or Not- Watson and Beyond” moderated by Chicago-Kent Professor Dan Katz. Panelists included Noah Waisberg of Kira Systems; Khalid Al-Kofahi from Thomson Reuters; Charles Horowitz of The MITRE Corporation – Center for Judicial Informatics, Science, and Technology; Andrew Arruda of ROSS Intelligence; and Himabindu Lakkaraju of Stanford University.
This all-star panel discussed which data analytics technologies are in use today in the legal profession. They also discussed what’s real and what’s marketing buzz in artificial intelligence. The panel agreed that AI attorneys would not initially reduce legal jobs. But assist attorneys in completing legal tasks. Khalid stated “the notion of the robot attorney is pretty much hype and we still have a long way to go to realize the potential of a fully AI attorney.” Andrew Arruda, Cofounder of Ross Intelligence announced a new partnership with Latham & Watkins. The latest big firm to jump in the artificial legal intelligence space.
This trend will likely continue if the data proves cost savings for big law firms. While robot attorneys won’t kill law jobs in the foreseeable future. Law students should definitely become familiar with the trends in AI.