14 Aug Ready for Robot Lawyers?

Enter Ross, a so-called “artificially intelligent attorney,” which students at the University of Toronto developed, according to the ABA Journal. This is for real. The students worked with IBM and the Watson computer, you know, the one that won on TV’s Jeopardy. Ross can learn and has been doing legal research in bankruptcy at a very large law firm. One of the students said that Ross is “grasping and understanding legal concepts and learning.” Once Ross becomes a bankruptcy law expert, they hope to have the robot esquire seek to learn in other fields.

Ross apparently went to law school and is now working at a firm. One of the machine’s developers, Andrew Arruda, excitedly declares that “Ross will become a senior partner in every single practice area.” That said, it’s understood there are limits on what it will be able to achieve. We don’t imagine Ross arguing your case to a jury or negotiating a complex acquisition transaction. But for basic legal research, once it’s really developed, Ross could be a helpful place to start and add efficiencies for humans advising clients.

In an era where technology becomes an ever more critical aspect of our work as lawyers, the advent of Ross is interesting indeed. Just remember the “intelligence” is artificial.