Artificial intelligence and future of law practice in Africa

A revolution is coming. And none of us can stop or resist it. Like a nuclear Armageddon, it will sweep the length and breadth of entire industries; it will change the way we live and work, alter the current course of our existence, and usher in a new era—the fourth industrial revolution. After steam, electricity, and computing, the age of deep digital transformation—fuelled by incredible advances in technology—is now upon us; we stand on the threshold of vast changes. These changes will be, in scope and scale, unlike anything humankind has experienced before.  And of the technologies that will materially impact our lives, artificial intelligence (AI) is a prime candidate.

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Currently, about 6.4bn sensors are connected to the internet;and there are about 4.6bn mobile users, 3.4bn internet users, and 2.3bn social medial users.  It is this exploding volume of data and the ability to harness them that is primarily driving AI research and development.  Now, put simply, artificial intelligence is intelligence displayed by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and other animals.  In the words of John McCarthy—the man who coined the term ‘artificial intelligence’—AI is the “science and engineering of making intelligent machines”. The term is also used to denote machines that could use cognitive computing capabilities to mine data, decipher trends and pattern, and machines with the “ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experiences”

In what was a giant step for computerkind and a depressing day for mankind, Deep Blue—a chess-playing AI that could scan 200 million positions per second and analyse 74 moves ahead—shocked the world when it made history by outmaneuvering Gary Kasparov, a chess world champion who, at 22, was eating other grandmasters for breakfast and who had never lost to a human opponent.  In another ‘Man vs Machine battle’, the Case Cruncher Alpha beat its human counterparts in a competition where the legal AI was pitted against 100 commercial lawyers given factual scenarios of hundreds of cases and asked to predict the success of the claim. Case Cruncher achieved 86 percent accuracy and won by over 20 percent.

Right. There’s such thing as legal AI. The world’s first AI lawyer, ROSS, reads through thousands of cases and delivers a ranked list of the most relevant ones, helps lawyers to analyze legal issues and make connections that would otherwise be invisible. It even writes legal memo like actual humans!

Clever software tools like Ravel Law and LexMachina predict the attitude and workings of a judge, the usual moves of opposing counsel, and the possible outcomes of cases by using large volume of litigation information, court decisions, filing data, and legal processes. Indeed, there are now AI-powered programs that help judges review criminal records, help evaluate the gravity and frequency of offences, and assist in sentencing.  For many reasons, interests in artificial intelligence have spiked, conversations are growing, and the impact of AI is being widely recognized, even in a heel-dragging, precedent-based profession like law.

Artificial Intelligence and Law: David and Goliath

Law is the only self-regulated profession on earth.  It enjoys substantial immunity from outside challengers, particularly in comparison to other professions.  This immunity is safeguarded by the enactment of protectionist professional rules and guidelines which govern civility, ethics, and protect lawyers from overthrow.  But it appears very likely that law—though shielded by regulations and imbued in tradition—might not be able to withstand the sweeping influence of the digital revolution for long. “Carefully erected protections sheltering the legal profession from disruption is now being eroded”,  and the foundation of the monopoly over legal work and the ‘practice of law’ is beginning to crumble.

Traditionally and historically, only lawyers can legally engage in the practice of law. But things are beginning to change. In the landmark case of Lola v Skadden , the Court held that “tasks that could otherwise be performed entirely by a machine cannot be said to engage in the practice of law,” meaning thatonce some task can be entirely performed by a machine, that task can no longer be considered to be ‘the practice of law’.The implications of this decision are manifolds. Just as Salomon v Salomon  revolutionized corporate law, the decision in Lola v Skadden may soon spark a global trend. Predictions already abound. According to Deloitte, over 100,000 thousand jobs will be automated in the legal sector in the UK alone by 2025, and companies that fail to adopt AI are fated to be left behind. Law is no longer safe from AI. And a single rock from the agile and fluid AI’s sling may knock down the highly regulated, heavily armored, and greatly encumbered legal profession.  Analogically speaking, David may take out Goliath again.

• Adeyoju (LL.B, B.L, ChMC) is a lawyer, writer, and public speaker.