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  • Enough Hype Already: Inside Legal’s (Over?) Excitement with AI. “While many in the legal industry still over hype AI technology, some are beginning to separate fact from fiction. But the hype hasn’t been all bad—or good—for the legal market.” The post by Rhys Dipshan is here.

 

  • Covington’s Thomas Parisi posted: AI Update: FCC Hosts Inaugural Forum on Artificial Intelligence. “Chairman Pai made clear in his opening remarks that the purpose of the forum was not to initiate AI regulation at the FCC. He stated: “It’s important to note that this event is about discussion and demonstration.”

 

  • Anna Cope and Melanie Lane of CMS wrote: Disciplinaries and Performance Management: Artificial Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence. The article addresses, “AI can help to remove both conscious and unconscious bias in decision-making and to ensure consistency of approach. However, will it ever be acceptable culturally for a machine to decide to fire an employee? Where should the line be drawn when important decisions need to be made about employees’ performance or disciplinary matters? Is the human element still important in this process?”

 

  • Cadwalader’s Steven Lofchie posted: Agencies Urge Banks To Pursue AML (Anti-Money Laundering) Compliance Innovation. “In a joint statement, the Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC, FinCEN, the National Credit Union Administration and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the “agencies”) stated that innovation – including the use of artificial intelligence, digital identity technologies and internal financial intelligence units – has the potential to augment banks’ programs for risk identification, transaction monitoring, and suspicious activity reporting.”

 

  • In this post, Chris Cook, Katherine Bravo, KC Halm and Amy Mushahwar of Davis Wright Tremaine summarize the FTC’s hearings on Competition and Consumer protection (a month ago). FTC Hearings Exploring Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, and Predictive Analytics Focus on Notions of Fairness, Transparency and Ethical Uses.

 

  • Here’s a complete seminar from Dentons. It’s their eighth annual CPD Bootcamp. Chasing Shiny Objects: A Practical Guide To Managing The Challenges Of Transformative Technologies. “The session covered the following: Things to consider before acquiring a transformative technology: how much is real and how much is hype? And how do you know? How select transformative technologies create unexpected privacy and other compliance challenges and ways organizations can address them. Steps organizations can take to manage common risk and liability issues, including via contracts.”

 

  • And this from Dentons Italy’s Giangiacomo Olivi: AI And Drones, A Love Affair (Part I). “One of the main innovative characteristics of drones is their capability to collect and process great amounts of data, including personal data, which is often difficult to manage. This implies that the future usage of drones will be increasingly linked to data analytics and AI patterns and algorithms.”

 

  • “Microsoft Corp. called for new legislation to govern artificial intelligence software for recognizing faces, advocating for human review and oversight of the technology in critical cases.” Details here.

 

 

  • K&L Gates has posted Volume 39 of its Blockchain Energizer Energy Alert, this time summarizing three recent developments.

 

  • More on AML Reform: Artificial Intelligence, Beneficial Ownership and Real Estate from Ballard Spahr. “…(T)he OCC believes that ‘[n]ew technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning offer banks opportunities to better manage their costs and increase the ability of their monitoring systems to identify suspicious activity, while reducing the number of false positive alerts and investigations’.” This in-depth post includes this link to Part One.

 

  • Sameer Gokhale of Oblon, McClelland asks is the Pendulum Swinging Back In AI Direction? “(M)ost inventions in AI will not be directed to a magical robot or the self-driving car. Instead, a lot of inventions are directed to the building blocks of AI, such as deep learning and machine learning algorithms along with data collection techniques which are vital to train the AI software.” “If the USPTO director can guide the examining corp to take a patent owner-friendly approach toward inventive algorithms related to AI, then it will help swing the pendulum of patentable subject matter toward a place that is in harmony with the current state of technology.” Article from Intellectual Property Magazine here.

 

  • Suebsiri Taweepon and Pimpisa Ardborirak of Tilleke Gibbins posted: Challenges of Future Intellectual Property Issues for Artificial Intelligence. “…(W)ould the software developer(s) of an AI be entitled to the work created by that AI? And if the user of the AI continually inputs new sources of information for the AI to learn, resulting in newly created IP, would the user be entitled to own the created IP?”

 

  • This interesting post warns of possible negative unintended consequences of cheap “lawtech” A2J such as, “the silencing of #MeToo activists with an avalanche of libel lawsuits; honest tradesmen ripped off by an automatic lawsuit over every invoice; online bullies spinning up endless court cases against their enemies in order to intimidate them into submission; patent trolls automating their hunt for genuinely innovative companies to exploit”.”

 

  • Meanwhile, here’s more progress on the A2J front: Chatbot to help renters released today. (From New Zealand.)

 

  • Peter Krakaur of UnitedLex posted this overview of legal technologies. It includes a nice summary chart. Planning Your Next Legal IT Strategy Discussion: A Service Delivery Framework (Part I).

 

  • Columbia University’s AI Business Course Studies Legal Tech Startup (Evisort). “…(L)egal technology offers a prime example of using tech experts and industry experts—in this case lawyers—in the development of a needed business tool.” Coverage here.

 

From Artificial Lawyer:

– “Big Tech company, Microsoft, is to broaden the appeal of its NLP and machine learning tools for doc review as part of a project to bring its Azure Cognitive Service capabilities into the Power BI platform for business level analysis and data visualisations. The service will open for public preview from March 2019.” Post here.

– HighQ Integrates With Legal AI Co. LEVERTON + Launches V. 5.0. Post here.

– “Smart contract pioneer, OpenLaw, and oracle platform Rhombus, have joined forces to build derivatives smart contracts, as part of a project to see if their tech can be used in the $500 trillion market for handling derivatives trades.” Post here.

– Relativity Develops ‘Pre-Crime’ Abilities With Trace App at ING Bank. Post here.

 

  • Press release from Littler: Littler Hosts Roundtable of Industry Leaders to Discuss Impact of Automation Technologies. It’s an interesting summary of the event and includes a link to Littler’s recent TIDE (Technology-Induced Displacement of Employees) report. Oh heck, why not just include that link here and save you a click?

 

  • Press release: Elevate Acquires Sumati, Expanding Capabilities and Scale in Contract Lifecycle Management Support.

 

  • Press release: XDD Acquires Leading AI Automation Software Company, Esquify, Further Optimizing the Company’s Managed Review Service Offering.

 

  • Press release: Successfully Migrates 10 Terabytes of Litigation Data to Casepoint eDiscovery Cloud.

 

More prognostications:

– Legal Technology – the future of legal services from Dan Bindman. Post here.

– Moving Beyond Smart Contracts: What Are The Next Generations Of Blockchain Use Cases? Post here.

– 2019 will be the year of artificial intelligence. Post here from Damien Willis.

– This, from Information Age: Artificial intelligence for the lawyer – transforming the legal industry.

– 5 Artificial Intelligence Trends To Watch Out For In 2019. This is a bit technical, but interesting.

– Tech predictions from The Economist in 2019: Facial recognition to AI regulation. “…Major League Baseball will start allowing fans to validate their tickets and enter stadiums via a scan of their face, rather than a paper stub. Singapore’s newest megamall will use the technology to track shoppers and recommend deals to them. Tokyo will spend the year installing facial-recognition systems in preparation for the Olympics in 2020, when it will use the technology to make sure that only authorised persons enter secure areas.” More here.

– If those forecasts aren’t enough for you, how about: 120 AI Predictions For 2019. I did not verify the count or even read them all, but 120 feels about right. Here they are.

 

Blockchain

  • This, from Scott H. Kimpel of Hunton. Blockchain Legal Source: Mining Cryptocurrency Under Federal Election Law. “The acting general counsel of the Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) recently published for public comment a draft advisory opinion under the Federal Election Campaign Act and related FEC regulations regarding mining cryptocurrencies for the benefit of political committees.”

 

  • Seven EU States Sign Declaration to Promote Blockchain Use. “…(T)he document cites “education, transport, mobility, shipping, Land Registry, customs, company registry, and healthcare” as services which can be “transformed” by this technology. The group also cites blockchain tech’s use for protecting citizens’ privacy and making bureaucratic procedures more efficient.” More here.

 

 

  • James Marshall, Deals Partner at PwC posted: How blockchain could upend M&A and other deals. “As a tamper-proof shared ledger that can automatically record and verify transactions, blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) could vastly change how investors value, negotiate and execute deals.”

 

  • From Legal Theory Bookworm, this review of the recent book, Blockchain and the Law: The Rule of Code by Primavera De Filippi & Aaron Wright. “De Filippi and Wright welcome the new possibilities inherent in blockchains. But as Blockchain and the Law makes clear, the technology cannot be harnessed productively without new rules and new approaches to legal thinking.”

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  • The data protection laws described in this post from Barnes & Thornburg are relevant to AI and blockchain. California’s New Data Protection Laws are Coming … but Colorado’s law is Already Here. “If you are a business that maintains, owns, or licenses computerized data that includes PI about Colorado residents, this new law applies to you.”

 

  • Speaking of personal data, Jones Day just published: Singapore: PDPC Issues Discussion Paper On Artificial Intelligence And Personal Data. The discussion paper was published by Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Commission (“PDPC”) on June 4.

 

  • This short paper by Richard Suskind explains his idea of a mind-set called ‘outcome-thinking’. “Nor do taxpayers want tax accountants. They want their relevant financial information sent to the authorities in compliant form. … Patients don’t want psychotherapists. Roughly speaking, they want peace of mind. Litigants don’t want courts. They want their disputes resolved fairly and with finality.”

 

  • Word of this acquisition certainly spread fast — I’ve heard it mentioned twice already today. Elevate Acquires LexPredict, Expanding Capabilities in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.

Meanwhile, Artificial Lawyer reports that, “Elevate has begun to refer to itself as a ‘law company’, rather than an ALSP (i.e. an Alternative Legal Services Provider).” President, John Croft said, “I think the only difference between the two (Elevate and a firm such as Slaughter & May) is that they are a law firm and we are a law company.” “We might provide different legal services, or we might deliver the same legal services in different ways (or we may deliver exactly the same legal services in exactly the same ways!), but we both provide legal services.”

 

  • Holland & Knight’s Norma Krayem just published her take on the FTC’s 7th consumer protection hearing, this one focused on the use of big data and AI. “(T)he FTC has indicated an ongoing interest in these issues as well. Certainly, cybersecurity and privacy issues underpin the concerns along with broader consumer protection issues with the use of Big Data, AI and other tools.” She outlines the subject the FTC will cover.

 

  • Trey Hanbury of Hogan Lovells published Why the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence will reinvent network connectivity. It’s a pretty deep dive into all sorts of connectivity and their relation to each other. He discussed infrastructure required, and the FCC’s role in all aspects.

 

  • Artificial Lawyer posted: “US law firm Orrick has today announced a new startup venture fund from which it will make investments in promising legal tech companies globally. The firm intends to create a strategic relationship with each portfolio company, they said, with Orrick typically acting as a beta customer, while making an investment in the range of $250,000. Orrick expects to be investing alongside well-known lead financial investors.”

 

  • Also from Artificial Lawyer: Legal AI Co. Diligen Integrates with NetDocuments. “The integration, available globally today, allows customers to ‘simply and securely summarise and analyse legal documents using Diligen’s AI and machine learning tools’ for matters such as contract review. The result means that documents can be analysed without leaving the secure NetDocuments ecosystem.”

 

 

 

The biggest story in AI this week is the launch in China of an AI (“Digital Human”) news reader/anchor person. It’s certainly not Uncle Walter, but at first glance it’s pretty convincing. “The Chinese AI anchor man looks very much like the average Chinese citizen, a typical Chinese guy with that oddly intellectual look. He looks reassuring, made for his market like most news readers’ images are supposed to be.” Coverage here, here, here and video here. “There’s fake news, and then there’s fake people doing the news.”

In related news, Microsoft has developed AI that goes beyond the now well-established systems that write news articles. “Condensing paragraphs into sentences isn’t easy for artificial intelligence (AI). That’s because it requires a semantic understanding of the text that’s beyond the capabilities of most off-the-shelf natural language processing models. But it’s not impossible, as researchers at Microsoft recently demonstrated.”

 

  • Read this post from Artificial Lawyer. It provides some excellent insights from the heads of legal departments in some major corporations as to where the industry is headed and why. Legal Is Not ‘Special’ – Key Message of TR Legal Tech Procurement Event.

 

  • Artificial Lawyer (AL) has begun to do product reviews. The first company to be reviewed is Kira Systems, and here is the link. It’s not actually a link to a review, but rather a call for users to review the product according to specified criteria which will then be reported. Cool.

 

More posts from Artificial Lawyer:

– BCLP Launches ML Early Dispute Evaluation Service. “Clear/Cut harnesses the firm’s award-winning in-house forensic technology capability.” More here.

– Big Data Startup Concirrus Wins Norton Rose InsurTech Prize. Details here.

– Using AI Contract Analysis to Prepare for Brexit – Seal Software. More of this sponsored post here.

 

  • Blank Rome published: Will “Leaky” Machine Learning Usher in a New Wave of Lawsuits? in RAIL: The Journal of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & Law. “…(I)t seems all but inevitable that some of those (AI) systems will create unintended and unforeseen consequences, including harm to individuals and society at large.”

 

  • Law.com posted this news from Byran Cave: New Data Analysis Service Could Help In-House Clients See the Future. “…Clear/Cut leverages predictive coding and machine learning to comb through massive amounts of data and pluck out key information for legal analysts, who use the data to recommend whether clients should settle or forge ahead with litigation.” More here.

 

 

  • From Laura H. Phillips of Drinker: The FCC Wades into the Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning Pool. ” Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai issued a Public Notice announcing a first ever FCC Forum focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. This Forum will convene at FCC headquarters on November 30.”

 

  • This, from Jonathan Bockman, Rudy Y. Kim, and Anna Yuan of MoFo: Patenting Artificial Intelligence in the U.S. – Considerations for AI Companies. “…(C)ertain AI technologies can face increased scrutiny at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) with respect to whether the invention is directed to patent-eligible subject matter.”

 

  • James M. Beck of ReedSmith published: The Diagnostic Artificial Intelligence Speedbump Nobody’s Mentioning. This is a very interesting and thorough treatment of the FDA’s regulations and the need for more.

 

  • Canada’s Torys published: Software As Medical Devices And Digital Health In Canada: What’s Next? Link here.

 

  • From Pillsbury’s Ashley E. Cowgill, Artificial Intelligence: A Grayish Area for Insurance Coverage. Download here from The Journal of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & Law Vol. 2, No. 1.

 

  • Here’s an interesting post by Ian Connett of QuantumJurist: A Future of J.D. Advantage Jobs? (“J.D. Advantage” jobs are those for which a law degree is strongly preferred, but not necessarily required.) As you might expect, the answer is “yes”, and the specific examples he presents are interesting.

 

  • “Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon’s on-demand cloud computing subsidiary, was partially HIPAA eligible — AWS customers could use Polly, SageMaker, Rekognition, and dozens of the platform’s other offerings to process health information. But Translate, Comprehend, and Transcribe remained notable holdouts — until now, that is. As of this week, all three comply with HIPAA.” Story from Venture Beat here.

 

  • Dentons has published this Market Insights volume titled: Digital Transformation and the Digital Consumer. There’s a chapter on AI and much of the content is AI-related. There’s a video excerpt here.

 

  • LeClairRyan has published Airplanes and Artificial Intelligence Parts I and II. “…(A)pplications for AI in aviation and its effect on the legal liability and regulation of those who use it.”

 

  • From Hogan Lovells, here’s a link to download Artificial Intelligence and your business: A guide for navigating the legal, policy, commercial, and strategic challenges ahead.

 

  • Milena Higgins of Black Hills is the guest on this episode of Legal Talk Network’s “Legal Toolkit”: Robot Takeover: How Automation Makes Law Practice Easier.

 

  • Here’s Part 4 of Mintz’ Strategies To Unlock AI’s Potential In Health Care, Part 4: How And When Will Congress Act?

 

  • At two events in the past 30 days I’ve been part of discussions about law firms acquiring tech companies. Here’s an example: Singapore law firm Rajah & Tann acquires e-discovery startup LegalComet.

 

  • “Nalytics, is working with Strathclyde University’s Law School post-graduate students on a new project dedicated to promoting digital transformation in legal education. By providing free access to the Nalytics search and discovery platform to students on the Diploma in Professional Legal Studies, the project aims to help students develop a greater understanding of legal technology and more importantly, its applications in tackling a range of big data problems.” Story here.

 

  • This article from S&P Global Platts (Commodity market AI applications are emerging along with new risks) cites partners at several prominent law firms among others. “Artificial intelligence and smart contract technology like blockchain are slowly being adopted by commodity markets, creating opportunities to streamline trading and other functions, but not without introducing challenges and risks experts said Thursday.”

 

  • Exterro has issued the results of another survey. (2018 In-house Legal Benchmarking Report. There’s a link here.) All that is presented regarding the methodology is “…with over 100 respondents (more than ever before), this year’s report surveys a wider distribution of companies, including more from organizations of fewer than 25,000 people than in the past.” So, I’m assuming there are 101 respondents, making the typical margin of error error about +/-10%. Given the wide range of company sizes (1 to 250,000+ employees) and the fact most fall into one size category (1,000-25,000 employees), I don’t see how there can be much useful information anywhere in the report. Law.com talks about it (without regard to the methodology) here.

 

  • Here’s another industry survey. (The Blickstein Group’s 10th Annual Law Department Operations Survey.) This one has 128 respondents this year, but reports data back to 2008 when they had only 34 respondents. This year’s stats are probably accurate +/-9% which means that many of the differences reported are actually in a statistical tie, and the prior year data with very small samples should be ignored. Above the Law includes a summary by Brad Blickstein here without comment on its methodology. When combined with the included content by vendors and law firms, I see this study as the equivalent of an interesting focus group — just don’t take the statistics seriously.

 

  • I find it interesting that this post from Kyocera BRANDVOICE in Forbes (Can The Right Office Equipment Improve Our Legal Culture?) has a section on AI. They include AI as “equipment-related”.

 

  • Here, from the New York Times DealBook is a thorough examination of the bias present in today’s artificial intelligence:  AI: The Commonality of A.I. and Diversity. (It’s written by Alina Tugend)

 

Blockchain

  • This, from ContractWorks: Are Your Contracts in Chaos? Get Organized with These 4 Tips.

 

 

Also from Artificial Lawyer:

– Smart Contract Pioneer OpenLaw Goes Open Source. Story here.

  • Ron Friedmann has pulled together pieces from three WSJ articles to offer a bit of a plan for improving value to clients, and hence to the law firm. His thesis combines considerations of Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), Productivity, and Big Data.

 

  • This, from Eran Kahana of Stanford Law School: Artificial Intelligence and Computational Law: Democratizing Cybersecurity. “An effective solution to a new problem has to incorporate different thinking, an epistemic reconfiguration, if you will. It is a thinking that manifests in novel tools, combined with effective deterrence in the form of penalties for non-compliance. But going back to the different-thinking variable, I think that a good part of an effective solution is available in shifting focus from regulatory efforts to end-user empowerment, essentially enabling end-users to become smarter consumers in the Internet + ecosystem.”

 

  • Robert Bond and Hannah Crowther of Bristows posted: Ethics and Data Privacy. “The 40th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners has released a Declaration on Ethics and Protection in Artificial Intelligence. In it, the Conference endorsed several guiding principles as “core values” to protect human rights as the development of artificial intelligence continues apace. The Conference called for the establishment of international common governance principles on AI in line with these concepts. As an initial step toward that goal, the Conference announced a permanent working group on Ethics and Data Protection in Artificial Intelligence.” “Even if Scott McNealy was right in 1999 (when he reportedly said, “You have zero privacy anyway – Get over it.”), individuals deserve respect for their privacy. This respect does not always have to be imposed by law, but should be a matter of integrity and ethics.”

 

  • Richard Jeens and Natalie Osafo of Slaughter and May posted this via Artificial Lawyer: Using AI for Regulatory Investigations. “In this post, we consider and share our views on the opportunities, limitations and future uses of AI for investigations.” “…(AI) is not a panacea. At the moment, significant resource can be required to compensate for AI’s limitations, which are amplified by the unpredictable nature of investigations, and the evolving data protection position.”

 

  • This, from Mintz’ Rodney L. Whitlock: Strategies to Unlock AI’s Potential in Health Care, Part 4: How and When Will Congress Act? “Currently, there is no sense that Congress will actively engage in legislative oversight of AI in the immediate future – the lack of movement on the existing bills combined with the overall lack of more targeted legislation are evidence of this. However, we are able to identify potential circumstances that could spur the House and the Senate to get involved.”

 

  • Also from Artificial Lawyer: “Legal marketplace pioneer, Lexoo, will use some of its recent $4.4m funding to develop its own legal tech applications to support the lawyers who work through the platform and to provide a deeper infrastructure for them to use on client matters. Such tools, e.g. that can support corporate deal work, will also mean that individual lawyers, or lawyers based in smaller firms, will already have some tech tools on hand to leverage their skills and do more for the clients, and work more efficiently.”

 

  • And finally from Artificial Lawyer: “Pittsburgh-based tech startup Three10 Solutions has bagged a $250,000 angel investment to continue development of its AI patent concept search system, named Dorothy. It is also looking for design partners to join the project. Its central idea is that unlike some other systems, it uses NLP to do conceptual searches for similar products, rather than depending just on key words, which are rarely sufficient for a detailed analysis.”

 

  • I wasn’t aware of Australia’s Law in Order until today. Their website provides several useful pieces of content including: The Importance of Having an eDiscovery Expert on Your Side. Of course, they are promotional, but interesting nonetheless.

 

  • From Legaltech news: Artificial Intelligence: Useful—But Risky, Deloitte Survey Says. “Four out of 10 executives are concerned about the legal and regulatory risks of artificial intelligence, according to a recent Deloitte survey. Lawyers shared with Legaltech News the concerns they’ve heard and gave suggestions to address those risks.”

 

Blockchain

  • From Dentons: UK: Manufacturing The Future: Applying Blockchain To The Manufacturing Supply Chain.

 

  • From Howard Kennedy: Blockchain is not the answer to money laundering… yet. “There is no reason existing regulations should stifle the progress of blockchain in this area. If regulators can create shared platforms, then they could dramatically improve AML measures for financial services while reducing the cost of compliance. It may even result in an internationally recognised digital client-identity forum. But clearly there is work to be done.”

 

  • Korean, Singaporean Firms Form Consortium to Create a Global Healthy Blockchain Ecosystem. “Some of the biggest blockchain-focused companies, as well as one law firm, have formed a consortium to create a “healthy blockchain ecosystem” as well as develop several dApps that are strategically focused on South Korea and Singapore.” Details here.
  • From Above the Law, Patrick Fuller’s thoughts on law firms’ obstacles to adoption of AI-based technologies. “The biggest obstacles for getting firms to adopt AI tend to be combinations of different factors — most notable are attorney compensation structure, the matter’s fee arrangement, and the practice area as well.” More of Patrick’s thoughts and findings of the recent ALM survey here. And since it’s Friday, here’s what I assume is his high school yearbook headshot.

 

  • Interesting thoughts regarding the use of blockchain for betting and the obstacles to its regulation here. Crypto Prediction Market on Blockchain Raises Regulatory Concerns. “(A) contract listed on the site may be worth watching. It asks, ‘Will the Forecast Foundation face an enforcement action from the SEC or CFTC before Dec. 21, 2018 for hosting unregulated derivatives markets?'”

 

  • Here’s more about Blockchain from K&L Gates: Blockchain Energizer – Volume 32. They review two developments: “The Arizona Corporation Commission Opens the First Blockchain-focused Utility Regulatory Docket,” and “Energy Web Foundation and LO3 Energy Partner to Standardize Data on Tobalaba.”

 

  • A legal conference with it’s own AI-powered chatbot! APAC regional legal tech conference LexTech launches AI assistant. “Called, LEXi, the Artificial Intelligence chatbot was developed by Malaysia’s CanChat and will focus on addressing enquiries of LexTech delegates in real-time via Facebook Messenger….”

 

  • From Law360, The Future Of Authenticating Audio And Video Evidence. “Audio and, to a much greater extent, video are the preeminent forms of probative evidence (both inside and outside the courtroom). Attorneys must at least begin to think about a hypothetical future in which audio or video recordings cannot be taken for granted. The recent emergence of artificial intelligence-based technology has prompted serious concerns about the…” (That’s as far as I could get without a LexisNexis account.  🙁

 

  • This half-hour video from the ABA’s Law Technology Today (Big Results with Big Data) pretty much delivers on this promise: “In this video, you will hear from the Chief Knowledge and Client Value Officer at Shearman & Sterling on how they are leveraging big data and litigation analytics to build a stronger case strategy for better management of client expectations. You will also get the inside scoop from a Product Developer at Thomson Reuters to see how they are doing big data differently to improve your practice.”

 

  • Squire Patton Boggs partner Huu Nguyen authored this piece: Artificial Intelligence Law is Here, Part One, “Law is being developed now, in order to set the rules of the road for the usage of AI. And we as lawyers should recognize it as a specific discipline.” “I don’t think lawyers will lose their jobs in droves to robots. But, nonetheless, the practice of law will change.” This first part is a bit of a teaser mainly providing background info and concluding with, “(t)une in for part two of this series, in which I will discuss robot speech issues, AI bias and transparency, regulatory guidance on use of robo-advisors by the SEC, proposed AI laws before Congress and more.”

 

  • Here comes another blockchain consortium, featuring law firms and tech firms. BakerHostetler, LexPredict and Others Partner to Develop Blockchain ‘Middle Layer’. “Agreements Network is slated to serve as an arena for lawyers and others to build technologies using blockchain for ends like contracts, asset management and evidence storage.”

 

  • I don’t believe it’s too much of a stretch to include news about the Big Four accounting firms’ relentless march into the legal space in a blog about legal AI. So here goes: Deloitte to Join Big 4 Legal Race in Singapore With Foreign Law Firm Launch.
  • Easily the most reported AI story in the past few days has been: UK & France sign major deal for AI & Cyber Security cooperation. “The plan will see the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, The Alan Turing Institute, partner with French counterpart DATAIA on research and funding initiatives.” Coverage here, here and here.

– This post from Artificial Lawyer takes an in-depth look at the British Government’s support of legal tech per se.

– Another perspective on the UK’s attitudes and uses of tech in law is presented in this post: “Imagine Y Combinator of the tech world fame, but inside a law firm with open access to the partners, associates, technology infrastructure, and staff.” “…(S)ince the passage of the 2007 Legal Services Act, which allows non-attorney ownership of law firms (also known as an ABS structure) there has been an explosion in innovative business models combining great lawyers, business professionals, and technologists (think Riverview Law). UK Biglaw also seems to get that times are changing.”

 

  • But, while the UK and France are planning to become more competitive in AI, here, from CB Insights are the nine companies who have been acquiring AI startups:

 

  • Also from Europe: “Researchers from the European University Institute have developed a tool designed to use artificial intelligence to scan companies’ privacy policies to identify violations of data protection laws….”

 

  • Singapore’s government is also committed to investment in AI, in this case, specifically legal AI. “The city-state’s government has established programs to advance innovation in the legal profession. Can Hong Kong, Asia’s other financial center, catch up?”

 

  • Here, from Thomson Reuters, are more thoughts about use of AI in smaller firms. “So, what can a small law firm attorney do to gain the insights of large law firms and more experienced attorneys? The answer is artificial intelligence.” Much of this post is taken from their eBook, “Not All Legal AI Is Created Equal.”

 

  • One of the ways AI is expected to become available to smaller organizations is ‘AI as a service’ (AIaaS). This area is expecting rapid growth. Worldwide Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS) Market 2018-2023: A $10.88 Billion Opportunity – ResearchAndMarkets.com.

 

  • Gowling has come up with an interesting way to get its employees comfortable with blockchain. “International law firm Gowling WLG has introduced a new blockchain-based peer-to-peer recognition scheme for 1,178 UK employees working at its London and Birmingham offices. The Gowling WLG Reward Token scheme (GRT), launched on 2 July 2018, was designed internally to educate employees about blockchain technology and help staff to earn and share rewards.” More here.

 

  • This (Vera Cherepanova: AI doesn’t solve ethical dilemmas, it exposes them) is an interesting read and unusual perspective about AI and ethics, focused on compliance applications and implications.

 

  • Here’s more coverage of China becoming a ‘surveillance state’. “In some cities, cameras scan train stations for China’s most wanted. Billboard-sized displays show the faces of jaywalkers and list the names of people who can’t pay their debts. Facial recognition scanners guard the entrances to housing complexes. Already, China has an estimated 200 million surveillance cameras — four times as many as the United States. Such efforts supplement other systems that track internet use and communications, hotel stays, train and plane trips and even car travel in some places.” The specific examples are fascinating.
  • From Jones Day: Major Patent Offices Meet to Discuss Adoption of AI Tools.

 

  • In this post, Jones Day suggests that Trump may impose tariffs on AI: “President Trump is reportedly considering another round of Section 232 duties of potentially up to 25 percent on automobile and auto parts imports. … Additionally, the administration has suggested that it is considering whether to initiate Section 232 cases on other industries, including semiconductors and artificial intelligence.”

This opinion piece from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette suggests that China may resist. Here’s how a trade war over tariffs between America and China could play out.

 

 

  • From Fisher Phillips: Robots, Automation and A.I., Oh My – California Proposes to Establish “Commission on the Future of Work”

 

  • JDJournal posted this discussion of AI as a threat to legal jobs. “Perhaps the biggest challenge for law firms will be adapting to a new business model that embraces and incorporates AI. The hope  is that an increase in capabilities by a law firm will result in an increased ability to take on additional legal projects.”

 

  • Peter Darling, AI consultant to the legal industry has some interesting thoughts in this provocatively titled post: Start Learning to Trust Artificial Intelligence; You’ll Make More Money. “…(O)ne of the most important levers firm management can move to increase profitability is to make these processes more accurate, more efficient, faster and above all, less dependent on human beings. This saves the firm money and time and, ultimately, helps the bottom line. Artificial intelligence is ideal for automating a lot of these processes.”

 

 

  • JP Morgan is unleashing artificial intelligence on a business that moves $5 trillion for corporations every day. (It’s the treasury services division.) Details in this post.

And JP Morgan’s treasury management services unit “…is reportedly testing an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered bot to support corporate clients and anticipate their needs. The publication said such a bot would be a first for the corporate payments industry.” Story here.

 

  • I post about investments in legal AI every now and then, but I skip about 20 such stories for every one I post. This one seems particularly interesting: Seal Software unveils global partnership with DocuSign, announces $30 million in growth capital from Toba.

 

  • This teaser includes the link to a deep dive report by Deloitte titled: Machines with purpose. From theory to practice: Artificial Intelligence in professional services. The report is a review of where we are, the story of how we got here, and suggestions for selecting and implementing AI solutions. Oh, and they make the business case for doing so. Good stuff.

 

  • From the Law Society Gazette: “Britain has an opportunity to be a global leader in new technologies transforming legal business and access to justice – but should beware of complaceny, the minister for legal services said last night. ‘There is a lawtech revolution happening all over the world and I want to make sure the UK not only keeps pace with it but leads it,’ Lord Keen of Elie (Richard Keen QC) told an event to launch the latest ‘lawtech incubator’. However Keen warned ‘We cannot afford to be complacent’, pointing to competing initiatives in Canada and Singapore.”

 

  • This editorial from The Irish Times suggests that AI in legal may take a while, but “better faster cheaper” (my words) will come. Making a case for artificial intelligence in the legal profession.

 

  • Blockchain News:

– Cloudsight adds Bitcoin Lightning payment to allow instant AI-to-AI transactions. Story from VentureBeat here.

– From Bloomberg Law: Blockchain Patent Holders Look to Dodge Trolls, Lawsuits. “A surging number of blockchain experiments and related patent applications across various industries present ripe opportunities for patent assertion entities or trolls, as they’re often known, who could hamper innovation if not properly contained, patent attorneys say.”

 

  • Here’s more on MIT’s recent breakthrough on reading brainwaves. How to control robots with brainwaves and hand gestures. “Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory system enables people to correct robot mistakes on multiple-choice tasks.”

 

  • This is a cool infographic presentation about using AI in a small business. It includes sample vendors. Many of these applications are relevant for law firms. 12 Actionable Tips on How to Leverage Artificial Intelligence in a Small Business.

 

  • Because it’s Friday, here’s the link to a very good intro to AI from the Discovery Channel, it’s clear, pretty comprehensive, and very up-to-date. Here’s a review from c|net.
  • These thoughts by Paul Rawlinson, Global Chair of Baker McKenzie and sobering and realistic. Will lawyers become extinct in the age of automation? His observations include, “…(T)he market will kill those who don’t adapt. They are the ones who should be scared of the machines. For them, the robots are coming. The really wise lawyers, they know it’s not one versus the other. For those who can find ways to use AI to augment, not replace, judgement and empathy, I believe the future is very bright indeed.”

 

  • The Legal AI Forum has commissioned a survey (Artificial intelligence and the future of law) of “200 professionals within the legal sector” and presented the results in this report. Results like the chart below suggest their interviewees may be on the leading edge of things. More coverage of this very optimistic report here.

  • From Artificial Lawyer: “Global law firm Linklaters has partnered with the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, (ISDA) to build a platform that automates significant parts of derivatives documentation and also helps to negotiate initial margin (IM) issues.”

 

  • AI in healthcare: New data sources pose ethical conundrum for AI. “Technologists developing AI tools for healthcare must “completely re-engineer” their data flows around de-identified data to avoid regulatory hurdles, Stanley Crosley, an attorney who chairs the data privacy and health information governance team at Drinker Biddle, said.”

 

  • More from SOLI2018 here, including, “That includes embracing artificial intelligence rather than being fearful of it. Robots will not take your job,” said Shawnna Hoffman, global cognitive legal co-leader at IBM. “Robots will take away the things that annoy you, like processing invoices.”

 

  • If you’re at all interested in the legal (especially liability) implications of autonomous vehicles, read this post from Artificial lawyer.

 

  • Also from Artificial Lawyer: “Luminance, is branching out into the regulatory world in order to expand its offering by covering areas such as Brexit impact on contracts and GDPR compliance. … the company’s initial strategy of focusing only on M&A due diligence is well and truly over, with a mission now to capture a greater share of the NLP-driven doc review market across different practice areas.”

 

  • Here are 14 Ways Law Firms Are On-Point With Their Tech Game.  Good examples.

 

From Law firms:

– Clifford Chance: Clifford Chance establishes Best Delivery and Innovation Hub for Asia Pacific in Singapore

– Finnegan (podcast): Susan Tull on Patenting the Future of Medicine. “Artificial intelligence, or AI, is rapidly transforming the world of medicine. AI computers are diagnosing medical conditions at a rate equal to or better than humans, all while developing their own code and algorithms to do so. With the rise of AI, there are new issues of patentability, inventorship, and ownership that must be addressed.”

– Hogan Lovells (white paper): ADG Insights: Artificial Intelligence. “…(T)he top legal and political issues affecting the aerospace, defense, and government services (ADG) industry.”

– Littler (survey of 1,111 in-house counsel, human resources professionals and C-suite executives): The Littler® Annual Employer Survey, 2018. “Recruiting and hiring is the most common use of advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence, adopted by 49 percent of survey respondents.”

 

  • Thomas B. Edsall contributed to the NYT this opinion piece about the impacts of AI and other major economic changes (e.g., getting Trump elected). Industrial Revolutions Are Political Wrecking Balls. Sobering.

 

  • And now, some unsettling news about increased use of AI by Facebook and the Russian military.

 

  • Finally for this week, here’s a thought piece for your weekend by Anthony Giddens, former director of the London School of Economics and member of the House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence. A Magna Carta for the digital age. Among his recommendations:

The main elements of that charter are that AI should:

Be developed for the common good.

Operate on principles of intelligibility and fairness: users must be able to easily understand the terms under which their personal data will be used.

Respect rights to privacy.

Be grounded in far-reaching changes to education. Teaching needs reform to utilize digital resources, and students must learn not only digital skills but also how to develop a critical perspective online.

Never be given the autonomous power to hurt, destroy or deceive human beings.

  • From Artificial Lawyer: Thomson Reuters is again turning to AI tools, now with a contract remediation system to help companies review and repaper legal agreements ahead of Brexit. In this case it will be using AI company Logical Construct, which leverages a combination of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning techniques to achieve its extraction results.

 

  • From Patent Docs: FDA Permits Marketing of First AI-based Medical Device; Signals Fast Track Approach to Artificial Intelligence.

 

  • SINGAPORE (Reuters) – In the not too distant future, surveillance cameras sitting atop over 100,000 lampposts in Singapore could help authorities pick out and recognize faces in crowds across the island-state. Some top officials in Singapore played down the privacy concerns. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last week that the Smart Nation project was aimed at improving people’s lives and that he did not want it done in a way “which is overbearing, which is intrusive, which is unethical”.

 

  • Google and AI Ethics: “After it emerged last month that Google was working with the Defense Department on a project for analyzing drone footage using “artificial intelligence” techniques, Google’s employees were not happy.” “(M)ore than 3,000 of the employees signed a letter to CEO Sundar Pichai, demanding that the company scrap the deal.” “Google Cloud chief Diane Greene … told employees Google was ‘drafting a set of ethical principles to guide the company’s use of its technology and products.’” “…Greene promised Google wouldn’t sign up for any further work on ‘Maven’ or similar projects without having such principles in place, and she was sorry the Maven contract had been signed without these internal guidelines having been formulated.”

 

  • House of Representatives Hearing: GAME CHANGERS: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PART III, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY, Subcommittee on Information Technology, APRIL 18, 2018 2:00 PM, 2154 RAYBURN HOB.
  • This post by Roy Storm via Law.com is an excellent recap of where we are and where we are headed with AI in the practice of law. I’d say it’s a “must read” for practicing lawyers, especially young associates.

  • This is the first time I’ve ever posted a link to a complete issue of a journal, buy hey, it’s Friday, and I believe you should take a few minutes to scan through the current issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal. It’s a “Special Issue on Evolving Legal Markets and Technology: The Future of Law Practice.” As does the Law.com story posted above, one of the articles references Lola v Skadden (620 F. App’x 37, 45 (2d Cir. 2015)):

“In (which), the Second Circuit held that contract attorneys performing discovery document review may not be engaging in the practice of law,” at least in North Carolina. The court held that “an individual who, in the course of reviewing discovery documents, undertakes tasks that could otherwise be performed entirely by a machine cannot be said to engage in the practice of law.” If courts hold that AI constitutes the unauthorized practice of law, legislatures may liberalize laws to specifically exclude such products as the practice of law.” (I added the bolding.)

 

  • Thanks to Artificial Lawyer for this coverage of the legal AI on other side of the globe:

 

  • Back in the USA, “…lawmakers voiced their concerns about shrinking government R&D funds Wednesday in the second of three House Oversight IT subcommittee hearings on government’s role in developing and implementing artificial intelligence.”