header-logo header-logo

26 July 2018 / Matthew Kay
Issue: 7803 / Categories: Features , Technology
printer mail-detail

Robot Sophia comes of age

nlj_7803_backpage

Matthew Kay introduces the robot lawyers of the future & recommends making friends with AI

Robot Sophia was granted citizenship in Saudi Arabia last year. If you haven’t heard of her (though should we even be using these pronouns?) Sophia is a humanoid robot, capable of not only delivering a speech, but, scarily, expressing opinions about how robots should be entitled to the same rights as humans. Whether a marketing ploy or not, Sophia is eerily human like and makes you wonder whether we are one step closer to creating sentient AI beings.

With this in mind, it’s particularly worrying that lecturers in The Times’ The Brief warned earlier this year that law schools are not teaching their students technology and the law, which is leaving them ‘dangerously exposed’ (The Brief , 25 January 2018). At a time when robots and AI systems are not only used in a variety of professions including the law, but also in the home as an assistant, it’s scary that law qualifications—the LPC and the proposed

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Dual-qualified partner joins as head of commercial property department

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Firm announces appointment of next chair

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Director joins corporate team from the US

NEWS
What safeguards apply when trust corporations are appointed as deputy by the Court of Protection? 
Disputing parties are expected to take part in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), where this is suitable for their case. At what point, however, does refusing to participate cross the threshold of ‘unreasonable’ and attract adverse costs consequences?
When it comes to free legal advice, demand massively outweighs supply. 'Millions of people are excluded from access to justice as they don’t have anywhere to turn for free advice—or don’t know that they can ask for help,' Bhavini Bhatt, development director at the Access to Justice Foundation, writes in this week's NLJ
When an ex-couple is deciding who gets what in the divorce or civil partnership dissolution, when is it appropriate for a third party to intervene? David Burrows, NLJ columnist and solicitor advocate, considers this thorny issue in this week’s NLJ
NLJ's latest Charities Appeals Supplement has been published in this week’s issue
back-to-top-scroll