The rise of Chat GPT gave way to an interesting question, could the machine learning model come to pace with some of the benchmarks of human intelligence today. What followed next was the GPT models facing many management studies and legal tests and doing fairly worse in most. Chat GPT 4 today has increased its likelihood of passing the bar exam from a mere 10% to a whopping 90%. For someone who has seen how these models work, such a jump from one generation to another is no new. But it, therefore, poses more extensive and practical cases for us to implore.
Before these large language models took the helm, any legal practice involved the tiresome job of scrounging through numerous precedents and preparing a case for both the defendant and the plaintiff. This involved rigorous search in databases (thanks to the digital revolution) and coming up with critical analysis from the texts. With AI promising to replace this final step in the process, it removes the final bits of human intelligence that had to be involved. That opens the possibility of making legal practice from a human service to a machine-assisted utility. For example, people who had to hire a lawyer for each puny purpose can have enough judicial arsenal at their disposal today with a few taps on the computer.
From the other side of the table, judges today have also embraced the new tech, helping them as a consultant. Although replacing a judge from the system is impossible (just like removing the accused and the victim), it does lower the absurd requirements and painstaking process of being an expert in all judicial texts ever produced. This revolution had come at a time when the covid pandemic had made much of the process digital, transforming the intimidating courthouse into a web-based group call. However, this comes with an added benefit; the whole process is prerecorded and can now be used to help people understand the law and not be overwhelmed by it. This goes hand in hand with AI trying to become the de facto lawyer.
Is AI typing up the loose ends of digitisation, transforming the legal practice into a more accessible and digestible utility for the general public?