The promise of AI has been around for decades, but it is the last three months that has finally caused an awakening so forceful, that even the legal industry understands it needs to be ready for the upcoming Age of AI. This week's guest has worked toward that goal of integrating AI and other technologies into to practice of law for more than forty years. Johannes (Jan) Scholtes is Chief Data Scientist for iPRO – ZyLAB, and Extraordinairy (Full) Professor Text Mining at Maastricht University in The Netherlands. He joins us this week to discuss the need for lawyers and law firms to use these tools to enhance the power of the practice of law. And he warns that if the traditional legal resources of lawyers and firms won't step up, there are others who will step in to fill that void.
While the AI tools like GPT and other generative AI tools have finally began to be true language tools, there is still a lot that these tools simply cannot do. Scholtes says that there is plenty of legal work to be done, and in fact perhaps more work now that the computers can do most of the heavy lifting and allow the lawyers to do the thinking and strategy.
Scholtes compares the relationship between the lawyer and the technology to be that of a pilot and co-pilot. A relationship in which the co-pilot cannot be completely trusted, but can be trained to assist through the process of vertical training. This means that a law firm needs to work with the AI to have it better understand how to process legal information. Having the technology alongside the lawyers provides a stronger legal representation than just the lawyers or the technology alone. In addition to reducing risk and improving outcomes, Scholtes also projects that Lawyer + AI means higher rates and better profitability, while the clients receive better results.
It is exciting to be at the beginning of this change in the way law is practiced. It is important, however, that law firms, lawyers, and legal professionals understand how to teach and control the technology, and that there needs to be transparency in how the tools work and make decisions. His recommendation is that if all you are offered is and AI Black Box, then you should simply walk away. That lack of trust will come back to bite you.
For more insights from Jan Scholtes, visit his blog, Legal Tech Bridge.
Contact Us:
Twitter: @gebauerm, or @glambert
Voicemail: 713-487-7821
Email: geekinreviewpodcast@gmail.com
Music: Jerry David DeCicca
Transcript available on 3 Geeks
LegalWeek 2024 Special Part Four: Joshua Lenon from Clio
Love and Legal Tech: Sonja Ebron and Debra Slone of Courtroom5
LegalWeek 2024 Special Part Three: Bill Piwonka of Exterro
Love & Legal Tech: Cassie Vertovec and Alex Macdonald
LegalWeek 2024 Special Part Two: Mollie Nichols and Mark Noel from Redgrave Data
Legal Week 2024 Special Part One: Joey Seeber of Level Legal
Navigating the Future of Legal Tech with Caroline Hill
Projections for Legal Tech and Innovations in 2024 (TGIR Ep. 232)
Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges: Tackling Racial Bias in Law with LexisNexis Fellows 2023 (TGIR Ep. 231)
Pfeifer and Wellen Give an Inside Look at LexisNexis' AI Sprint (TGIR Ep. 230)
The Future of KM is Bright: DiDomenico, Miro, and Little Review the KM&I for Legal Conference (TGIR Ep. 229)
TGIR Ep. 228 - Cat Moon and Mark Williams Launch the New Vanderbilt AI Law Lab (VAILL)
vLex's Damien Riehl on Examining vLex's New Vincent AI
Colin Levy, Dorna Moini, and Ashley Carlisle on Herding Cats and Heralding Change: The Inside Scoop on the "Handbook of Legal Tech"
Jacqueline Schafer on Writing Briefs at the Speed of AI: How ClearBrief is Transforming Legal Drafting
Paulina Grnarova and Yannic Kilcher from DeepJudge.AI: Unlocking Institutional Knowledge: How AI is Transforming Legal Search (TGIR Ep. 224)
Breaking the Stigma: Fostering Wellbeing in the Legal Profession (TGIR Ep. 223)
Thomas Suh and Ken Block on How LegalMation is Revolutionizing Litigation Efficiency
Unleashing the Legal Monster Behind the Door - LexFusion's Christina Wojcik (TGIR Ep. 221)
Paxton.AI's Chau & Ulin: How AI Allows Legal Work to Soar to New Heights (TGIR Ep. 220)
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The emPOWERed Half Hour
NABOR® TALKS
U.S Property Podcast
Aligned Money Show
The Ramsey Show
Planet Money