“We just don’t have that data yet. At least I am not aware of it.
“It’s such a recent technology, so it’s going pretty fast. We will probably know more in some sort of the next three to five years.”
Which roles could AI take?
Yuvaraaj said that junior lawyers in large companies may be more at risk of AI integration because they were often task with jobs that take a lot of time.
“That kind of difficult, time -consuming work is what the argument is that AI can help automate, it can also help to automate legal research and drawing up consultancy and other documents.
“Many of the tasks that you would get a junior lawyer to make a first passage … can initially be automated by AI and then be assessed by a more senior lawyer.”
Auckland New Lawyers Committee Member Patience Ngara told the Herald She uses AI as a faster alternative to certain tasks that make up more than 50% her work.
Ngara said she is worried about the impact that AI will have on Junior staff, such as lawyers and office assistants.
“It is already quite difficult for lawyers graduated to find positions in New -Zeeland. I find it difficult to see where they could help when they arrive and the usual tasks they would do are now easily done by AI,” she said.
Employment lawyer Jordan Neville told the Herald He thought AI was an efficiency tool and would not be a replacement for a person.
“It is not fundamentally going to undermine what we do as a lawyer, because, you know, building up a report with a customer and building those human relationships, that is something that AI cannot replicate,” Neville said.
Are lawyers well equipped to handle the risks?
Lawyers are very aware of the risk that AI poses and there are strict guidelines, said Yuvaraj.
“The Law Society has set up guidelines with regard to the use of AI, mainly the use of chatbots that can hallucinate incorrect material.
“The courts have said that if you use generative AI, you must ensure that content is accurate. You must verify everything.”
Worldwide, lawyers are reprimanded by the courts for submitting hallucinated material generated.
“We have not yet had a case in New Zealand where the court has reprimanded a lawyer for abusing AI in submissions. There have only been a few cases in which self-representative parties have used generative AI in court cases,” said Yuvaraj.
Recently, a lawyer in California was commissioned to pay a historic fine of US $ 10,000 ($ 17,000) after 21 of 23 quotes from cases noted in the opening of the lawyer, AI were generated, AP reported.
To assure
Ngara said she has become aware of how depending on some professionals and students have become in technology in recent years.
“You would be surprised how many people use it (AI) and do not verify the information they receive or do not check it in any way.”
Ngara said she is worried about how dependent new graduates are about these AI tools.
“The recent graduates seem to be a bit heavier, more dependent on AI. At least from those I spoke to … I hope that people still know that they themselves understand the law before they use AI because it still has so many things wrong,” she said.
In a situation in her previous office, the staff investigated part of an action and used AI to help them.
“We knew it was wrong because we knew the law. Now, someone who did not know that the law just said:” Great, I have my answer, “said Ngara.
“It sounded correct because it uses the sections of the action and supports it with case law.”
Yuvaraj said that a warning story can also be found in the world of cryptocurrency compared to the rapid developments in AI.
“We were able to look back and say that we really had to get on that train and we didn’t do that … But just as much a warning story from the world of cryptocurrency and non-fungal tokens, which were all anger a few years ago and some sort of now in the background,” he said.
“I just think it is a warning story not to assume that technological development will take place in a linear way.”
Yuvaraj said that people should be careful with making radical statements about where they think things are going.
