Executive Summary

• American and British lawyers face structural barriers to adopting AI
• Open-source legal initiatives are changing the game
• AI’s limitations in law are still a topic of debate

The Buzz Score

The Internet’s Verdict: 70% Hyped, 30% Skeptical

Expert Insights

Forum Voices

Some experts believe that AI is bringing much-needed change to the legal profession. As one expert notes:

It would seem these structural barriers are increasingly become either more porous or more malleable as AI has brought more OSS legal initiatives to empower both attorneys and regular users. The Law and lawyers are being dragged kicking and screaming into e/acc.

Others are more skeptical about AI’s abilities. For instance:

I assume also that LLMs are not very good at chronology. Since law evolves, I wouldn’t be surprised that LLMs would spit out arguments that are out of date.

Another expert raises concerns about AI’s ability to interpret the law:

This does not mention either interpretation or hermeneutics. For a computer to function as a lawyer it would have to be able to perform interpretation. I would expect such an article to start there, or at least make some argument that concludes that a computer actually could perform professional legal tasks. Which I don’t think they can, just as they can’t do philosophy.

Focus Keyword: AI Lawyers