OpenAI, an artificial intelligence (AI) company, has made a significant investment in the legal services sector, by leading a $21 million Series A funding round in Harvey, a start-up building AI systems for law firms. The funding round also included participation from Conviction, SV Angel and Elad Gil.
Harvey is using GPT-4, the latest large language model developed by OpenAI, to create AI models tailored to the legal services sector. With more than 15,000 law firms on the waiting list, the start-up hopes to free up time for lawyers, as the global legal services market is predicted to be increasingly impacted by AI technology.
The start-up is already working in collaboration with some large organizations like PwC. In March, PwC entered into a partnership with Harvey to enhance the workflows of its legal professional network which include more than 4,000 staff. The professional services firm also plan to use Harvey to develop their own AI models to create “customised products and services”.
Harvey believes in building AI systems that are both powerful and reliable, as lawyers establishing trust with clients is essential. In its statement, Harvey said: “We do so by building systems that replicate historic best practices for establishing trust in knowledge work – such as tiered review and the ability to incorporate natural language feedback – while pioneering novel systems for AI alignment and validation.
About the Company
Harvey is a startup building AI systems for law firms. Founded in 2020, it has already been backed by OpenAI with a $5 million funding round. The company hopes to use AI to free up time for lawyers, so that they can focus on client relationships and result-focused tasks. The company harnesses the latest technology in AI, such as GPT-4, to build their models. The product already has 15,000 law firms on its waiting list.
About the Person
Dan Fox is the CEO of Johnson Hana, a company which combines the use of lawyers, a custom platform, and AI to reduce the legal spend of its clients. With the help of AI, the company has been able to reduce its clients’ legal costs by up to 50%. Dan Fox has spoken to many publications, such as SiliconRepublic, to discuss the use of AI in this sector and the impacts that it has had on law firms.
