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With the advent of AI, it is estimated that millions of jobs will be lost as a result, as menial workers and professions without a high degree of specialization would be effectively defunct, and would be replaced by much more efficient, accurate and cheaper Artificial intelligence. There is a tangible danger of a worldwide job crisis and casts a doubt on the livelihoods of millions of people.
This proposes a very unique challenge to the legal profession. Being a highly specialized field of work, it is unlikely that AI will ever take over the finer aspects of lawmaking, judgement writing or contribute to constitutional or international jurisprudence.
However, logistical work like preparing case files, summarizing judgements and case laws and substituting for clerk work inside the courtroom are areas where AI can definitely contribute. AI Ross, developed by IBM, has been incorporated as a legitimate legal tool, particularly in the USA and is primarily used to vet legal contracts, conduct legal research, and briefly summarize case laws etc.
Apart from logistical work, Artificial Intelligence can also help adjudicate on matters of relatively menial nature, which depend on technicality rather than a contentious point in law, allowing judges to focus their attention on more pressing areas of the law.
There is a concern however that as this technology gets more advanced, these areas will start expanding and will lead to loss of more and more jobs. The legal profession, which includes and employees millions of people engaged in logistical, paralegal and clerk work, are endangered by this plausible reality in the future.
But on the other hand, AI is a unique opportunity for the legal profession, as it opens up a completely new area of the law, and would lead to scores of jurisprudence, debate and discussion on the legal ramifications of AI. Once AI develops to an extent where it has humanoid capabilities, would it have rights? Will it be considered as a commodity, or a living being with an independent consciousness? What would be the legal personality of AI? Will it, for example, have citizenship or residency rights?
These are all pertinent questions which the legal fraternity will collectively try to answer, and would invariably lead to new platforms, new organizations, collectives and hence newer jobs and employment opportunities. A separate field of law could be on its way and in the future, law firms may start to come up which solely deal with the legal aspects of AI.
Therefore, while there is growing anxiety with regards to the loss of jobs as a result of AI, there is a real possibility of a corresponding boom of jobs and employment which deal with the legal ramifications of AI.
In any case, it remains to be seen how the legal profession adapts to the advent of AI, rest assured, it is an interesting crossroads that we as the legal fraternity face, but we need to make sure that the collateral damage is as minimal as possible, and those whose livelihoods are in danger, are accommodated in this new conception and inevitable revolution of the legal profession
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