Welcome the era of robot lawyers. I can’t believe I’m typing this, but soon the first-ever AI legal assistant will assist a defendant in their legal process. Basically two defendants, both of whom will use the AI to contest a speeding ticket.
Designed by legal advice startup Don’t pay (opens in new tab)will the AI help the defendants – who remain unknown – by telling them exactly what to say and when, through an earpiece during the trial (via New scientist (opens in new tab)). In one case it happens via Zoom and in the other case it happens live in court.
Not only does the company offer advice for all sorts of legal battles, it also lets you connect with “Personable Prison Pen Pals” and offers advice on how to send them books from Amazon.
With their tagline “Fight corporations, beat bureaucracy, and sue anyone with the push of a button,” I now expect an influx of “I’m being sued by an AI” stories in the years to come. Although the disclaimer on the sign up page states “DoNotPay is not a law firm and is not licensed to practice law.”
Good to know.
Little did I know wearing an earpiece was even allowed in court, let alone working on a case with an algorithm, intelligent or not. I suppose AI is still a relatively new implementation, especially in the legal field. As such, nothing like this has yet been encountered, so nothing has been done to prevent it. Not yet anyway.
Watching AI evolves (opens in new tab) this year has been a roller coaster, and this is definitely going to be one to watch, especially since most AI GPTs can only master 5th grade English.