Why Artificial Intelligence Will Not Replace Lawyers

  • 30 mars 2020
  • Shiva Bakhtiary, lawyer at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP

With a surge in the number of new legal tech startups come concerned citizens warning that lawyers will soon be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI). The prediction of Singularity, a point in time when AI will be indistinguishable from human intelligence, is said to occur around 2040.

This unwarranted hype around AI is based on the misconception that we have developed a general or autonomous intelligence system – a computer system that mimics human intelligence, replicates human behavior in any context, and recognizes and resolves new problems for which it was not designed.

To the contrary, AI is an advanced analytics system that performs specific tasks with limited human involvement. It is the capability of a machine to imitate human intelligence and behavior. But, AI systems need human interfacing to develop and improve their ability to perform tasks.