Artificial intelligence is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs.’ – John McCarthy, father of AI
With the recent pandemic outbreak of COVID-19 we get to see that every industry is working virtually and the work continued as far as possible, same with the field of law as court is hearing cases virtually and deciding the matters. We have seen at global level that the adoption of AI by law firms is very popular and there are brainstorming on same that what is future of AI in law? There are many different notions on same topic.
What is AI?
Before proceeding further we have to understand what actually ai means ad there is lot of confusion many of us consider IoT (Internet of things) also as AI which actually is not but in IoT there is a component of AI. According to Oxford Dictionary it can be defined as “The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.”
AI and Law
The first lawyer who predicts the use of machines in law is Leibniz, one of the grandfather of AI said that ‘It is unworthy of excellent men to lose hours like slaves in the labour of calculation which could safely be relegated to anyone else if machines were used.’ AI which we are using in present time is specifically dedicated for a specific function or purpose. We all are using AI in small level even today itself from law students to professionals in field the online legal database which we are using it is also an form of AI which is programmed as per our needs. In present if we saw on global level already many big corporate law firms are using AI and save their time by doing smart work, they are using AI for contract reviewing and for other documentation work, the popular AI tools which is already adopted by law firms are LawGteex, eBrevia and Kira System.
AI in Law: AI Lawyer ROSS
Many of us heard about ROSS the first AI lawyer which is created on the IBM’s Watson platform. Law firm Baker & Hosteller has hired world’s first AI lawyer, they are employing ROSS to handle bankruptcy practices especially. According to CEO of firm Ross can save their time and help their other lawyers and attorneys also. From it we can get to know is really AI can be used in the field of law and what are the future perspective for same, also the big question which needs to be addressed again is that can AI replace humans in field of Law?
What more: Indian Situation?
We have seen a trending shift of ours towards technology, and the buzzword today is Artificial Intelligence (AI) in recent time we have seen that there is involvement of AI in Law especially at global level. AI is replacing most of our things so what is the perspective future of AI and Law, is it a boon or bane for us in times to come. In the case of India if we are discussing the same, we get to see that CJI S A Bobde also said in one of his statement as we can use AI system to avoid undue delay in Justice delivery. He said
“We must employ every talent we have, every skill we possess to ensure that the justice is received within reasonable time. Delay in justice cannot be a reason for anybody to take law into their own hands. We have the possibility of developing Artificial Intelligence for the court system, only for the purpose of ensuring that undue delay is prevented in the delivery of justice,”
Here its clear from the statement that in future perspective in Indian courts we can get to see the use of AI in assisting the judicial process for different purpose but here CJI also said that the AI is not going to replace human judges, as it is not going to replace human discretion. In India when we give a thought for AI in law we have to go miles to achieve it as the majority of personnel’s is not so techno savvy, in the most recent development on same lines as we get to see from the letter of BCI chairman to CJI. Here on global level everyone is discussing the future perspective of AI but in India even today we are stuck on the problem of technology friendly and knowledge for same to everyone in legal industry, which we can see here in that letter. The recent letter by BCI chairman to CJI advising against continuation of virtual hearings Post Lockdown it states that
“I can emphatically say that 90% of Advocates and Hon’ble Judges through out the length and breadth of the country are themselves unaware about technology and about its nuances”
The whole world is today using AI to save time and their work, but the recent letter by BCI chairman to CJI giving us a gap that exist in our country regarding technological progress. The letter primarily focuses on issuing the technological gap and for same Bar council of India addressed the letter to CJI requesting him not to continue the current system of E-filings, and Virtual hearings, post lockdown. The Council further pointed out other issues for discontinuance of the present system of working of court after lockdown, as many lawyers are belonging to background where they don’t have such resources also, they don’t have required knowledge to carry on with such technological advancement in their routine work. Thus, digitalization of court just creates a problem for them. The council also addressed in the letter that no other country in world was planning to replacing the present system of courtroom and to continue with virtual hearings. The letter is mainly concerned on the issue of virtual hearings and digitalization of courts as former CJ of Delhi and Bombay HC comes up with the solution to provide justice even in time of lockdown so that there is no delay in justice, they advised CKI to implement the concept of “virtual courtrooms”. Due to this the present letter is written to CJI to oppose the same and many arguments were proposed in that letter before CJI.
Here we have to think that we are talking and thinking about the future perspective of AI in judiciary but in India first we have to make all the personnel’s of the legal field techno savvy so we can easily implement the AI in our legal fraternity and in such a competitive world on the profession of law at international we have to understand that already many attorneys and law firms are using it, which make their work so easy. At world level if we see there is a great discussion amongst various scholar about that is AI capable of replacing humans, in field of law we have to understand that one day might be come when computers may mimic legal reasoning, and it will take time, so we can’t put this question till that time. We have to understand that AI technology has limitations and only works for what it has functioned, it is not yet superintelligence comprises of augmentation intelligence.
This article especially focuses on the BCI chairman letter’s analysis and the perspective of AI in field of law, in India we already see the implementation of AI but not in judiciary but by police, the Kerala police inducted a robot for police work. There is inconsistency in our country regarding the technology and knowledge on same.
Reference:
\2] Freedom and safety ROSS AI lawyer https://freedomandsafety.com/en/content/blog/ai-lawyer-ross-has-been-hired-its-first-official-law-firm
4] AI vs. Lawyer https://interestingengineering.com/ai-vs-lawyers-the-future-of-artificial-intelligence-and-law
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