Mounting concerns about the potential impact of artificial intelligence on legal practice have prompted the world's largest voluntary association of lawyers to set up a taskforce on the topic. A task force announced by American Bar Association president Mary Smith will address 'both the promise and the peril of emerging technologies', Smith said. 

The task force will explore:

  • Risks posed by the the technology, including bias, cybersecurity, privacy, and uses of AI such as spreading disinformation and undermining intellectual property protections
  • Emergent issues with generative AI such as the ChatGPT system
  • Utilisation of AI to increase access to justice
  • AI governance, including the role of laws and regulations
  • AI in legal education

The task torce is chaired by Lucy L. Thomson, an attorney and cybersecurity engineer in Washington DC. Thomson said the multidisciplinary group will 'will provide practical information that lawyers need to stay abreast of and navigate this complex technology'. 

Meanwhile latest research on the impact of AI on the profession shows that 75% of lawyers believe AI will lead to an increase in the amount of work carried out by individuals without traditional legal qualifications. Meanwhile 81% of UK responsdents to the survey said they believe that AI will improve gender, ethnicity and socio-economic diversity in the profession.

The Future of Professionals Report by legal information business Thomson Reuters is based on insights from 1,200 legal and tax professionals in the US, UK, Canada and South America. 

Overall sentiment towards AI is positive among UK lawyers, the report found, with 58% positive about the prospect of AI becoming more widely used within the workplace. Their biggest hope – cited by 47% of UK lawyers – with regards to AI is that it will boost productivity. Their second biggest hope, cited by 42%, is that AI will free up time for them to focus on higher-value tasks.

Kriti Sharma, chief product officer for Legal Technology at Thomson Reuters said: 'AI will have a potentially transformative impact on the legal profession, leading to an evolution in traditional career paths, skills sets and points of entry, as well as driving diversity and access. It is also set to change the type of work lawyers do, as AI unlocks time to focus on higher-level, complex work that adds value to clients.'

 

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