Is AI, or more specifically generative AI, eating legal tech? That is the question posed by sector expert Zach Abramowitz of Killer Whale Strategies.
The discussion is also a preview of Zach’s keynote speech, which he will give at the Legal Innovators UK conference in London, November 8 + 9. In this short video below, we explore some of the key aspects of AI’s current market-changing impact and highlight some of the themes at the conference.
Press play to watch:
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Areas covered include:
– We’ve seen NLP already, and it spread, but there was no revolution – is it different this time?
– Machine Learning work has been going on for a while, but this is something different.
– Generative AI is growing faster than can be comprehended and we are in the middle of a breakthrough moment.
– Zach states: ‘It’s silly to see this as just incremental progress, this is a paradigm shift.’
– LLMs can understand what you as a human are trying to do, and communicate with you – that is a big difference.
– Ultimately this challenges what we believe it is to be human. And, as Artificial Lawyer would add, tech helps to bring objectivity to what it is we actually do, by allowing us to see more clearly the processes we are using tech to improve.
– Even a response with hallucinations still may be showing you what is, in terms of thought processes, the right answer to a legal question even if the citation is wrong.
– Is NLP to LLM really a huge shift? Or is it just Betamax to VHS? I.e. different formats but very similar outcomes, or is this really a leap into a whole new realm?
– It’s now also a lot cheaper to do machine learning projects. This follows a trend of development: on-prem software, software moving to the cloud, then the arrival of NLP, and now LLMs.
– What happens to the legal tech companies? (Also, too much legal tech is still too complex – people even have to get certifications to use some tools. That will end.)
– Zach notes for many in this market they are ‘building Netflix while keeping Blockbuster’.
– The LLM-connected chat interface will replace most legal tech UI.
– Clearly it’s changing legal tech, but will it change the legal world? Hard to say yet, but the appetite among lawyers for LLMs is significant. It’s hard to believe this won’t have a downstream impact.
All this and more will be explored at the Legal Innovators UK conference in London, November 8 + 9, which Zach describes this way: ‘It’s a conference that does not feel overwhelming, but has a standing room only energy to it. I have rarely been to a conference where everyone is going into all the sessions. There is an electric energy at Legal Innovators.’
The two-day event comes at a time of significant change for the legal market and we will be bringing you engaging panels and presentations where leading experts really dig into the issues of the day, from generative AI, to the evolution of ALSPs, to law firm innovation teams in this new era for legal tech, to how empowered legal ops groups and pioneering GCs are making a real impact.
For tickets, please see here.
For more information, please see here.
See you there!
Richard Tromans, Founder of Artificial Lawyer and Conference Chair.
Thanks Zach and Richard. Great piece. I am looking forward to Legal Innovators! The statement that jumped out at me was when Zach talked about the sea change that will happen to CLM tools. I am with you. It is my view that the current models have quite a short shelf life. Those looking ahead will need to be thinking fast about how to transform the user journey in ways that were not even within our sphere of thinking at the end of 2022. CLMs of the future will need to do their users’ bidding on command. Mannually filling in Q&As or selecting clause libraries, agreement types etc through clicking and dragging just won’t cut it! The smart providers will already have started work on this!