ChatGPT, the latest innovation in Artificial Intelligence (AI), has been predicted to cause a major shift in the role of lawyers in the legal sector. Developed by OpenAI, a renowned American research laboratory, this incredible feat of engineering is a chatbot, a computer program designed to simulate human conversation and generate text, from songs and poems to academic essays and court judgments.
The GPT stand for Generative Pretrained Transformer, which is an AI system whose trained algorithm utilizes the internet data to intelligently predict the next word to complete a sentence. Data collected by Thomson Reuters this week has revealed that an increasing number of commercial law firms are beginning to adopt the use of this AI system, with 9% of the large law firms recorded in the UK utilizing it, compared to 3% in the US.
Increasing automation from software-based systems is, unfortunately, causing fears that ChatGPT could inhibit employment prospects for lawyers. Although the general sentiment indicates that yet unknown technology should be cautiously explored, the future of lawyers is still largely uncertain. Many believe that a substantial number of legal jobs would be at high risk of automation if the technology was adopted more thoroughly, in particular those that involve repetitive tasks or deal with straightforward legal matters.
OpenAI is dedicated to ensuring that AI advances are available to service all areas of our lives, especially ones as significant as the legal profession. It has been actively working to maximize the access and collaborative use of AI technology, with its chief executive, Sam Altman, continuously striving to develop the capabilities of AI to the point of being more powerful than the human intellect. OpenAI is the company at the center of the research behind this chatbot technology, and with its diligent team of experts, they have managed to come up with a groundbreaking breakthrough in the field of AI.
The development of tools like ChatGPT could be a huge impediment to employment in the legal field, potentially displacing a vast number of lawyers from their roles. Nevertheless, if well managed, the possibilities presented by AI could be tremendous in terms of cost-savings and process improvement, meaning that AI may well be the future for many law firms. Only time will tell.
