While the courtroom is still the preserve of the human advocate, lawbots are shuffling into legal services elsewhere. Rupert Jones puts the market leaders to the test
The robots are coming—and this time it’s lawyers who could feel under threat. Fortunately, artificially intelligent (AI) droids are not, yet, generally celebrated for their powers of advocacy. So while a crisp turn of phrase, engaging presentation, and persuasive argument remain the preserve of humans, advocates will still have an important role. But outside of the courtroom there is no doubt that AI bots are starting to undertake increasing types of legal work.
Bots can now have conversations with people about their legal dilemmas and use algorithms to predict the outcome of their case. Work undertaken by human lawyers for centuries is being computerised.
Elexirr: playing the language game of law?
Leading the way is CaseCrunch (the new name for what was Elexirr), a bot created by Cambridge students. Their initial ‘lawbot’ helped people determine whether they had been the victim of a sexual offence, now
