How Artificial Intelligence Could Challenge Modern Legislation

From Snapchat filters and Siri to Netflix's recommendations on what you and your partner might like to chill to, artificial intelligence technology (AI) is almost everywhere in the 21st century. While many applications of AI are harmless and provide a huge benefit, there is much controversy surrounding its development due to its implications on our legal system and the legal profession.

Firstly, it's important to address one of the most debated areas of AI, driverless car systems. With companies like Google and Tesla jumping on the AI driverless-car bandwagon, the future of commuting and 'driving' seems exciting. However, driverless vehicles could cause huge problems for our current legal system, with issues of liability burdening our politicians and lawyers who are little adapted to this new and changing field of technology. Here is a riddle to ponder: if a driverless vehicle crashed, who would be held liable?
- The owner - for a lack of control or vehicle maintenance?
- The manufacturer - for creating a car that is considered unsafe?
- The software developer - for ineffective coding of the AI technology?
Well as of this moment, there is no answer to the question of liability. Predictions from Thatcham note driverless vehicles could be introduced as early as 2018, making it clear the coming few years will trouble politicians and lawyers alike as we attempt to pass a reasonable piece of legislation. Expect more blogs on this topic to come...

A second equally pressing concern is that the prestigious law degree many of us are aspiring towards could be made futile by the time we qualify, with legal work already being replaced by AI bots that can scan and read paperwork in a fraction of the time that humans can. Research firm CB Insights claims that more than 280 legal technology startups have raised over $700million from 2012, showing the huge interest in this new field. Top law firms like Slaughter and May have also shown a keen interest in AI, exploring the field through projects and programs like 'Luminance' which allows the firm to quickly scan hundreds of papers for key words that may be relevant to cases. While current applications of AI within the legal profession therefore only perform basic search and find tasks, as the technology develops it is possible that the need for lawyers will diminish. Having seen the importance of this technology for myself after last week's visit to London (with my blog available here) I have decided to teach myself how to code using a programme called C++, believing coding could be an essential skill to lawyers of the future.

With so much controversy surrounding AI, it is too easy to get caught up in the mindset that the technology is more problematic than positive. I believe this is untrue as when properly legislated, driverless vehicles will provide obvious benefits; it might even be legal to drink and drive! There are also many positives AI could bring to the legal profession, aside from its current paper scanning and searching capabilities, just look at LawBot.

'LawBot' is a prime example of the positives that AI can bring to the legal profession. This student created robot uses a basic AI platform to provide free legal advice to its users, essentially offering an unlimited amount of pro-bono work, albeit without current pressures that lawyers face having to balance their pro-bono and paid cases. With goals of expanding into seven countries and a new version of the bot 'LawBotX' being able to offer advice on a wider variety of cases, this application of AI seems to provide an obvious benefit to its growing user-base. Not only does this technology open up legal advice to all, but it also removes often horrendous fees that many cannot afford to pay, and thus bridges the gap of inequality between the classes who can/can not afford legal advice.

The future of AI looks promising, even despite the challenge to our current legal system with an array of complex insurance claims and issues of liability. Not only does this new technology present the opportunity for a more accessible legal world and safer roads, but top Google executive Ray Kurzweil claimed computers will 'have human-level intelligence' by 2029, opening the doors of possibility for AI developers.

Christian Hughes.