Is Generative AI Going to Replace Lawyers?

Tech bro narratives are eating the world

Happy Monday! Feeling hung over post Super Bowl? Well, I’ve got a homemade remedy that will sort you out and it’s a hot cup of legal disruption. Let’s do this!

Could someone point me to the tech bros who are claiming that ChatGPT is going to replace attorneys? I’ve seen Alex Su (who I really like and respect) reference this trend a few times.

Alex Su @heyitsalexsu

This is what it looks like when AI is used to solve problems in the real world. Too bad it won’t get as many likes as those hot takes from tech bros about AI replacing lawyers.

Alex Su @heyitsalexsu

Tech bros showing up to explain why AI will replace lawyers

Unless we’re talking about DoNotPay founder Josh Browder’s various failed publicity stunts, I haven’t seen anyone serious — tech bros or otherwise — actually make this claim. All of which makes me think that I may be the tech bro! It’s the old Michael Scott rule — if you don’t know anyone like Michael Scott in your office, it’s probably because it’s you.

Zach Abramowitz @ZachAbramowitz

Two things can be true at once 1. ChatGPT doesn’t replace attorneys. 2. AI that knows how to read, analyze and create responsive documents (it didn’t use to, now it does) is going to become the norm and when it does, it is going to cause MASSIVE disruption in the legal industry

To be clear, I’m definitely blown away by ChatGPT and all its capabilities. I know big proverbial blockbuster release is coming soon, but color me impressed by the movie trailer.

• I do think this entire trend of generative AI is going to shake legal to its core.

• I do think that powerful LLMs will be released successfully by many of the big tech companies and quickly become better, faster cheaper.

• I do think the traditional business models will have to be revisited.

• I do think that many of the functions for which we’ve hired lawyers in the past e.g. go look through all of these documents and tell us the most important part will now be done using AI.

But that’s not exactly the same as “AI will replace attorneys,” which even I am not predicting.

I don’t know how responsible it is, however, to give folks the impression that all of this is, as Josh Browder himself would say, a “nothingburger” or just some tech bro narrative. Last week, Google lost over $100B of value in a single day on the back of one bad AI presentation. LLMs and the new breed of AI tools are anything but a nothingburger. ChatGPT and GenAI are not just another legal tech tool that lawyers will ignore. If saying that makes me a tech bro, so be it.

But rest assure, YOU are not going to ignore GenAI. And do you know why. Because you my dear friend have been legally disrupted.

I’m going to start sharing other AI related links I’m consuming. Today’s link is the New York Times podcast Hard Fork https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/03/podcasts/hard-fork-tiktok-openai-artifact.html This episode blew my mind because, as the hosts tell it, the OpenAI team (the makers of ChatGPT) really had no idea that ChatGPT would be this big of a hit. I’m not sure I believe it, but if that’s true, how wild is that?