AI vs. Lawyers: The Battle for Legal Supremacy

In 2018, a machine-learning AI was pitted against 20 human lawyers to see how it would fare going over contract law. Each lawyer and the LawGeex AI were given five nondisclosure agreements to review for risks. The humans were given four hours to study the contracts.

The lawyers took an average of 92 minutes to complete the task and achieved a mean accuracy level of 85 percent. The AI took only 26 seconds to review all five contracts and was 94-percent accurate. The AI tied with the highest scoring lawyer in the group in terms of accuracy.

To be clear, these were not first-year grad students or even freshly minted lawyers with no experience. The group was comprised of law firm associates, sole practitioners, in-house lawyers, and General Counsel. Some of them worked at firms such as Goldman Sachs, Cisco, Alston & Bird, and K&L Gates. All of them had extensive experience reviewing contracts with these companies.

That was in 2018.

In February 2023, a robot is set to advise a defendant in US court for the first time in history, according to New Scientist.

DoNotPay, a company, has created an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that will advise a defendant (an individual sued in a court of law) on what to say in court through an earpiece. The AI will run on a smartphone in the defendant’s pocket and will be activated during a hearing for a speeding charge offense. After listening to the accusations, the AI will advise the defense on what to say and how to respond. To maintain secrecy, the defendant will wear AirPods to the hearing, allowing them to receive the AI’s advice without anyone in the courtroom knowing.

DoNotPay is so confident about its algorithm that it has promised to cover any fines or fees incurred by the defendant if the AI fails to perform well in court.

The future is interesting.