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27 November 2015 / Roger Smith
Issue: 7678 / Categories: Opinion
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Looking forward

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Could technology provide legal empowerment as the government withdraws funding, asks Roger Smith

Remember IBM? They used to make computers that no one got fired for choosing. Then they went quiet as the new boys on the block—Google, Facebook, Amazon—emerged. Well, IBM is back and hungry; looking for diversified markets; hunting lawyers and illustrating one of the themes of the month—the search to define the future.

IBM Watson

IBM is touting its Watson programme as the lawyers’ killer app. Kyla Moran, a senior consultant, has been on the stomp to spread the word and this brought her to the Legal Futures conference at the RBS building in the City.

Moran talks a good game. And IBM has developed a line for professionals which is repeated at its rolling promotions: “Artificial intelligence (AI) is no threat. Far from it. It is better defined as ‘augmented’ rather than artificial intelligence. All it promises is to take out the grunt work of processing information. But, humans still have the key roles of inputting the data and reviewing the answers.” But,

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