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Is ChatGPT a genuine threat to lawyers?

ended 24. January 2023

ChatGPT is the talk of the town this week after Microsoft was alleged to have stuck another $10bn into its parent company, OpenAI (note, the exact amount has not been officially confirmed by Microsoft). Some are already saying this could be the beginning of the end for certain sectors and that lawyers could be particularly exposed. What are your thoughts? Load of old nonsense or a genuine threat to the legal sector? 

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Steven MatherVerified
Lawyer & Director at Steven Mather Solicitor
ChatGPT is pretty amazing tech and I can’t wait to see it develop. But it’s no threat. Sure, you can ask it to write a contract and it does a half decent job, but then you can also download templates online as well. It doesn’t mean they’re right for the job, or maybe you then change something and ruin it. The reason lawyers will always be essential is a mix of experience, knowledge and our insurance. If ChatGPT gets it wrong, it’s on you; if your lawyer gets it wrong, it’s on their insurance. Using a lawyer is about risk management. They advise you of your risks and you mitigate your risks by them being insured to advise. Until ChatGPT insures its advice, it won’t be mainstream. I do, however, think that lawyers and legal tech will incorporate ChatGPT into what we’re doing to make our lives easier.
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Katherine Muldoon0
Founder at Muldoon & Partners LLP
Lawyers are not in any immediate danger of being replaced by AI. Lawyers exercise independent professional judgment. AI cannot currently emulate essential lawyer skills such as strategic/creative thinking, conflict resolution, negotiation, emotional intelligence and empathy. In short, the things that make a good lawyer great.

AI is a tool that can help save time in things like due diligence, contract management, discovery, and legal research. It will make us quicker, more accurate, and increase cost-effectiveness, which will in turn improve client care overall as we have more time to focus on what we are trained to do.
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Beth Nash0
Head Honcho & Chief of Client Happiness at Smart Monkey
I find it unlikely that people are going to be happy trusting their legal affairs completely with chatGPT. It might cut out the need for lawyers at a lower-risk level such as website terms and conditions or employment contracts, but ChatGPT is a machine-learning system - it doesn't have the human comprehension or judgment that an actual lawyer will have. Lawyers will still be needed for legal issues requiring more in-depth analysis. Much like the creative industry, savvy lawyers will not be scared of ChatGPT, they will use it to their advantage to provide the best legal services.

This could lead to problems in situations where a more in-depth legal analysis is required