Introduction
Technology has impacted every sector and the legal field is no exception. The introduction and Implementation of Technology in the field of law have simplified legal processes and increased the efficiency of lawyers. It has made legal research easier and provided new avenues for communication, and allowed for more organized and secure record-keeping. The emergence of chatbots and virtual assistants like ChatGPT has further revolutionized the legal industry. This blog aims to explore the impact of technology and ChatGPT in the field of technology.
Impact of Technology in the Field of Law
Technology has impacted every field and in the same manner, technology has transformed the way lawyers approach legal work. Technology in the field of law is developing day by day but not in a faster manner but it is high time for us and for the legal field of India to accept and adopt technology in the field of law in a fast manner. The honourable chief justice of India Justice D.Y. Chandrachud stated that “technology is relevant insofar as it fosters efficiency, transparency, and objectivity in public government. AI is present to provide a facilitative tool to judge in order to recheck or evaluate the work, the process, and the judgments.”
COVID-19 plays an important role in the development of technology in the field of law. As Justice Sikhari properly points out, “The wheels of justice cannot be halted because of lockdown”. And technology plays a major role during that period we have seen physical courts transformed into virtual courts and dealing matters via video conferencing, various kinds of legal services were also provided virtually such as e-filing of cases and legal documents. Not only limited to court proceedings but several kinds of apps and websites were launched such as “E-COURT SERVICES’’ etc.
The Delhi high court has even gone a step forward by establishing an e-library and e-rooms which are completely paperless.
Chief Justice of India Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud during his inaugural speech stated that “I don’t receive any physical files from Courts. My Law Clerks send me all notes digitally and my chambers are almost paperless,” and our current chief justice D.Y. Chandrachud is a strong supporter of technology in the field of law.
Recently Supreme Court In the case of Swapnil Tripathi v. Supreme Court of India the SC of India acknowledge the notion of live streaming of proceedings, except in specific situations such as rape, matrimonial cases, and POCSO cases.
Here are a few other ways by which technology has impacted the Indian legal industry:-
- Research:- The use of technology has made legal research more efficient and convenient. Online legal databases like Manupatra, SCC Online, and Taxmann, Westlaw, Lexis Nexis provide access to legal materials like case law, statutes, and regulations. This has made it easier for lawyers to research and find relevant information quickly.
- Document Management:- Earlier on Documents were mainly managed physically but not it can be stored digitally there are several electronic document management system is there like Microsoft Office, and Google Drive which allows easy organization and storage of legal documents. This will gradually decrease the need for paper documents and will save lots of office space and Money.
- Communication:- Technology has provided a new mode of communication. Email, video conferencing, and instant messaging have made it easier for lawyers to communicate with clients, other lawyers, and courts. This has saved time and improved communication, and this will gradually save valuable time for the court, lawyer, and client.
During covid-19 physical courts were gradually converted to virtual courts or e-courts.
- Cybersecurity & cybercrime:- Due to the use of technology in all major sectors of the society issues like cybercrime and cybersecurity are a matter of concern but due to involvement of technology in the field of law made it possible to tackle these issues efficiently.
In this manner, technology is changing the legal field but due to the involvement of Artificial intelligence tools legal system will become more efficient and productive, and somehow ChatGpt will also or creating an impact in the field of law.
What is ChatGpt?
ChatGpt is a burning issue in every field in the field and the legal field is no exception. This term came into the picture on November 2022 when “OpenAI” released a chatbot called ChatGPT. OpenAI is an artificial intelligence research and development company creating “highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work.”
ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot from OpenAI that responds to open-ended text queries with paragraphs of text-written answers. It was trained through reinforcement learning from human feedback. During this process, human AI trainers would converse as a user and an AI assistant, then rank chatbot responses to teach the chatbot how to respond appropriately.
Impact of ChatGpt in the field of law
Artificial intelligence and virtual assistants like ChatGPT have the potential to transform the Indian legal industry. ChatGPT can help the legal industry in various major areas such as Legal research, document generation, and legal information, and can also help Law firms by helping in providing several legal as well as legal marketing services.
For example, Harvey AI– An AI tool designed specifically to provide legal services that are already showing results. with this, we can easily conclude that Artificial intelligence has a certain role to play in the field of law but what kind of role it will play is a Future matter.
How ChatGpt can help the legal Industry
ChatGpt has the potential and can be used in a variety of ways in this field the following is the list:-
- Legal research:- Firstly it could help or assist lawyers in their legal research by providing quick information and case-related materials etc this will gradually save their time and effort.
- Legal Documents generation:- ChatGPT can also help lawyers by generating legal documents such as by creating some legal drafts, contracts, etc. But still, this is in the research phase and they can just add a small input to it.
- Legal Marketing:- ChatGPT can help law firms in their legal marketing by using its AI mechanism it can help law firms and lawyers in the creation of marketing content, Email generation, and many other services this will create and build a good relationship between the lawyers and client.
Limitations of ChatGpt in the Field of Law
On one side the ChatGPT has certain benefits on the other hand it has certain limitations as well:-
Potential errors
ChatGPT is trained on a large amount of text data and GPT-3 only knows the facts and cases up to 2021 so, we can easily conclude that it may not always provide the most up-to-date or relevant information on a given legal topic. This can lead to potential errors which could have serious consequences in the field of law.
Complexities of law:- ChatGPT is a machine-learning system, it may not have the same level of understanding of judgments various kinds of laws, and client problems that a human lawyer has. So, it may not always be able to account complexities of law gradually this could lead to problems in situations where more in-depth and complex legal analysis and reasoning are required.
There are other several issues such as data privacy, legal reasoning, etc.
Will ChatGPT or AI replace lawyers?
It is a burning issue in every sector that will impact AI on jobs and professional services and the law field is no exception only time will tell what will be the role AI and ChatGPT may or may not play for the legal profession.
As Kristian Hammond said, “ You have to understand the length and breadth of the technology and where it collapses and make sure the task is not one that demands something beyond its limits,”. “ChatGPT might be good at taking a test. But, because of the nature of the underlying mechanism, it may never be capable of genuine reasoning, being imaginative, or thinking beyond the moment.”
Kristian Hammond also stressed the importance of understanding the nature of a task and confining technologies to the tasks they were built to solve. “He suggested a language model like ChatGPT might not, for instance, be suited to the task of determining how changing a clause in a contract will impact the document.”
Conclusion
In conclusion, Technology has transformed the legal industry in several ways. It has made legal research more efficient, improved document management, and provided new avenues for communication. Chatbots and virtual assistants like ChatGPT have the potential to further revolutionize the legal industry by assisting lawyers with research, drafting, and communication But limitations and challenges should be considered before adopting ChatGPT in the legal profession & technology should be used responsibly and transparent.
Author(s) Name:: Soham Goswami (Calcutta University, Kolkata)
